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January 5, 99

Shakti Lamsal, Janadesh IMPRISONED
Dhana Bahadur Magar, Janadesh IMPRISONED
Rewati Sapkota, Mahima IMPRISONED
Ashok Subedi, Himalaya Times IMPRISONED

Police raided the offices of the weeklies Janadesh and Mahima, newspapers generally regarded as sympathetic to the "people's war" initiated by the Maoist Communist Party of Nepal which is seeking to overthrow the constitutional monarchy. Police apparently conducted the raids in response to a story that had run in that morning's edition of Janadesh, about an attack by Maoist insurgents on a police post in the hills outside Kathmandu. This was the first time the insurgents had struck so close to the capital. Janadesh published the report alongside photos of two police officers killed by the rebels, who were also pictured preparing to set fire to the building.

The police seized lists identifying the weeklies' correspondents, copies of the papers, and computers. They also arrested about a dozen people, including Lamsal, a consulting editor with Janadesh; Magar, the paper's office manager; Sapkota, editor of Mahima; and Subedi, a free-lance reporter for the Himalaya Times.

Police did not produce warrants for any of these actions. CPJ's sources reported that the journalists were being held under the Preventive Detention Act, which gives authorities broad license to detain people suspected of endangering national security. A week after the journalists' arrest, police charged Lamsal, Magar, and Sapkota with treason, even though lawyers in Nepal say preventive detention cannot be used in tandem with a separate charge.

Subedi was released without charge after spending three days in police custody, Lamsal and Sapkota were released by court order on February 5, and Magar was ordered released on February 11. In all the cases, Nepal's Supreme Court ruled that police did not have sufficient cause to arrest them under the Preventive Detention Act. Under Nepal's Constitution, "No person shall be held under preventive detention unless there is a sufficient ground of existence of an immediate threat to the sovereignty, integrity or law and order situation of the Kingdom of Nepal."

CPJ sent a letter of inquiry to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on January 21, urging him to look into the circumstances of the journalists' detention and to determine whether police acted improperly in conducting the January 5 raids.