Former Nepali PM arrested in crackdown
Police in Nepal stormed the house of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and took him into custody today after he failed to appear before an anti-corruption commission, in a crackdown by the royalist government that critics say is politically motivated.
Police also arrested five senior politicians as they left a meeting at a Kathmandu hotel today, but officials did not say why.
Neither Deuba nor the politicians have been charged, but police have been empowered to break up meetings, and to arrest without warrant those who oppose or speak against the king or royal government.
About 50 policemen surrounded Deuba’s Kathmandu home and asked him to surrender, said Jeevan Prem Shrestha, spokesman for Deuba’s Nepali Congress Democratic.
When he refused, police cut off his electricity and telephone and broke in, forcibly detaining him, Shrestha said.
Deuba was being held at a police training camp in Kathmandu, Shrestha added.
Deuba’s government was sacked in February by King Gyanendra, who accused it of corruption and failing to crush a communist insurgency. After firing the government, the monarch seized power and imposed emergency rule – moves condemned by foreign governments.
The others arrested today were from the Nepali Congress party and the Communist Party of Nepal, the Himalayan country’s two largest political groups, said Purushottam Basnet, a spokesman for the Nepali Congress party.
More than 3,000 people in Nepal have been detained for opposing the king or his royal government since he took over.
Deuba was summoned last week by the Royal Commission for Corruption Control, set up by the king after he took over the government.
The former prime minister had refused to be questioned, saying the commission was formed illegally.
Seven former ministers in Deuba’s government have already been either detained or released on separate corruption charges by the commission. Six are being investigated for allegedly distributing money to their supporters.
All have denied the allegations, which they say are aimed at undermining the king’s potential rivals for leadership.
In neighbouring India, Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna today expressed concerned over Deuba’s arrest.
India’s government “is deeply concerned at the re-arrest of the former prime minister,” he said. “We are also concerned that the arrest and detention of political leaders, student leaders and workers of political parties continue, as do the restrictions on travel and movement of some academicians, human rights activists and students, contrary to assurances conveyed to us.”
