Nepal convicts top cops on Sudan scam

Feb 13, 2012, 18:04 GMT

Kathmandu - Nepal's Special Court convicted a British businessman and his Nepalese associate Monday, as well as three high-level police officers, on charges of involvement in a multi-million-dollar procurement scam for UN forces in Sudan.

Three former police inspectors and two suppliers were convicted of embezzling funds during the procurement of equipment for the Nepali Police, deployed under a United Nations mission in Sudan's Darfur region.

The court slapped two-year jail terms on the three police inspectors. They were also fined between 40 million rupees (513,000 dollars) and 280 million rupees.

The court also pronounced jail terms for British citizen Michael Rider, director of Assured Risks - the company that supplied the equipment - and his Nepali accomplice Shambhu Bharati.

The verdict was announced after a nine-month court case.

Last year, Nepal's corruption watchdog accused 34 policemen of misappropriating 300 million rupees during the procurement process for military equipment.

Of those, 31 were cleared of the charges.

Last year, Nepalese troops in Darfur were threatened with a shut-down of their mission because of a lack of military hardware following the procurement scandal.

The UN-African Union mission in Darfur planned to repatriate the Nepalese peacekeepers if the government failed to provide the required armed personnel carriers and other logistics.

About 150 Nepalese police officers are posted in Darfur.