JANUARY 15, 2013 Freedom Forum has been gravely concerned over a letter written by the Attorney General (AG) Mukti Pradhan, asking the district attorney office of Dailekh, to halt the ongoing statement recording of the accused ones arrested on the murder of journalist Dekendra Thapa.
AG Pradhan wrote to the Dailekh attorney on January 11, 2013, to stop the ongoing investigation.
He made such order at a time the investigation first halted by the Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai was just resumed after tremendous pressure from the media persons, rights bodies including the National Human Rights Commission, human rights defenders, civil society, legal practitioners and several rights-based national and international organizations.
"The written order by AG Pradhan is not only an undue pressure but has fully violated the humanitarian law, mocked at rule of law and justice," said Taranath Dahal, Chairperson of the Freedom Forum.
Despite being a legal advisor to the government, AG Pradhan is making wrong prescription merely with the argument that government was planning to form a truth and reconciliation commission to address the war crimes.
It is worth noting that the media persons all across the country have been agitated, panicked and protesting government's and AG Pradhan's order.
It has made clear how autocratic the government led by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is in terms of press freedom, journalists' rights that are the essences of any democracy.
Freedom Forum concludes that the AG's order has helped government promote impunity and suppress press freedom and human rights.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np
01-4102030/ 4102022