(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced outrage over the torture of a young journalist by soldiers. The organisation called for Chandra Giri, 23, of the weekly “Shram”, to be freed from custody and for those responsible for his torture to be punished. Giri is being detained in Kathmandu under the anti-terrorist law. The organisation learned of […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced outrage over the torture of a young journalist by soldiers. The organisation called for Chandra Giri, 23, of the weekly “Shram”, to be freed from custody and for those responsible for his torture to be punished. Giri is being detained in Kathmandu under the anti-terrorist law.
The organisation learned of the torture on 26 January 2005, just as United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour was winding up her visit to Nepal. “Those responsible for human rights violations in Nepal will not go unpunished,” Arbour said.
In a letter to Nepalese Prime Minister and Defence Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, RSF said, “The Royal Nepalese Army must absolutely stop secretly holding and torturing journalists with complete impunity.” The organisation also reminded him that his country has ratified the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Punishments, which came into effect in June 1987. “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture,” Article 2 of the convention stipulates.
On 19 January, Giri was moved to Kathmandu central prison, after 20 days in secret detention. His brother, Yamulal Giri, who was able to visit him, told RSF that he had been tortured. Soldiers were seeking information from him about his sources and contacts with Maoist leaders. He was beaten, given electric shocks and sprayed with freezing water. “I am still alive after several deaths,” the journalist reportedly told his brother.
On 30 December 2004, Giri was abducted by the army in Kathmandu. He was moved from one barracks to another over the next 20 days. He is now being held under the anti-terrorist law, which allows the government to hold him without trial for six months. The journalist also works for the weeklies “Halchal” and “Economic Post”, published in the capital.
In November 2002, RSF and the Nepalese human rights organisation Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC) sent a report to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, asking for his intervention because of a massive deterioration in freedoms, including the systematic use of torture by the armed forces.
