Human rights lawyer threatened: AI

London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International has said that human rights lawyer Jitman Basnet has received death threats, which he believes are connected to a book he has recently published about the time he spent in army custody.

At least one of the threats came from a man who claimed to be one of the people he had named in his book as responsible for raping, torturing or unlawfully killing people during the conflict in Nepal, the AI statement on Wednesday reads.

Amnesty International said it believes Basnet's life may be in danger.

He received threatening phone calls on May 21 and August 7, 11 and 18.

Arrested by the army in 2004, Basnet was held for almost nine months in Kathmandu's Bhairab Nath army barrack and tortured. His book, 258 Dark Days, is an account of his own experiences and also of the accounts he heard from other detainees. In the book, he names soldiers he claims raped, unlawfully killed or tortured people during the conflict. Since it was published, strangers have been asking his neighbours where he lives, and he has been threatened, the report says. nepalnews.com ia Aug 29 07