KATHMANDU: Chairman of the Interim Election Council, Khil Raj Regmi, and UK Minister of State for International Development, Alan Duncan held a meeting at the former’s office today.

On the occasion, they had an exchange of views on various topics of mutual interests and concerns as well as on expansion of bilateral relations.

Talking briefly to RSS after the meeting, UK Minister of State Duncan said that the vacating of the cantonments with the integration of the Maoist former combatants in the Nepal Army was a positive development for the peace process.

He said Chairman Regmi urged him not to have any doubts when he asked him about the guarantee of the Constituent Assembly election in coming November.

Duncan further said that besides expressing his best wishes for a free, fair and credible election within November, he also conveyed his country’s desire to consistently extend cooperation for Nepal’s development and the peace process.

It is stated that the United Kingdom has proposed to increase its annual assistance of 60 million Pound Sterling to Nepal to 100 million.

Duncan, who arrived here on Sunday on a four-day visit met separately with Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala and Chairman of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (Loktantrik), Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar today and discussed the current political developments and the election to the forthcoming Constituent Assembly.

He is scheduled to meet CPN-UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and Chairman of the CPN-Maoist Mohan Baidya later in the afternoon today.

LONDON: Nepalese army colonel Kumar Lama, charged with two counts of torture, appeared in court in Britain on Thursday, when a provisional date of June 5 was set for his trial.

The 46-year-old appeared via videolink at England’s central criminal court the Old Bailey. He is being held in London’s top-security Belmarsh Prison.

He stands accused of inflicting severe pain or suffering on two men when he was in charge of a barracks during the Himalayan nation’s decade-long Maoist insurgency in 2005.

His arrest in the faded English seaside town of Hastings on January 3 sparked a formal protest by the Nepalese government to the British ambassador in Kathmandu and a demand for his release.

Lama, who had been serving as a United Nations peacekeeper in South Sudan before spending a Christmas break with his family in England, wore a brown jumper and glasses and sat quietly throughout the 40-minute preliminary hearing.

The trial will be heard at Kingston Crown Court in southwest London and is expected to last four to six weeks.

A plea and hearing will take place on May 10.

Lama was remanded in custody after judge Adrian Fulford refused a bail application.

He has indefinite leave to remain in Britain and his home address was given as Hastings.

Lama was arrested under British law, which allows prosecutors to act against people suspected of torture no matter where it took place in the world.

The first count against him states that between April 15 and May 1, 2005, “as a public official or person acting in an official capacity, at the Gorusinghe Army Barracks, Kapilvastu, Nepal, you intentionally inflicted severe pain or suffering on Janak Bahadur Raut in the performance or purported performance of your official duties”.

The second charge says that between April 15 and October 31, 2005, in the same circumstances, the suspect tortured a man named as Karam Hussain.