NEPALI TRAFFICKER SENTENCED TO 75 YEARS'

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 001194

SIPDIS

AID/W: PLEASE PASS TO ANE/SA LYNN SAULS, EGAT/WID KATHY
BLAKESLEE, STATE FOR SA/RA LISA KAPLAN AND G/TIP

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID OTRA NP
SUBJECT: NEPALI TRAFFICKER SENTENCED TO 75 YEARS'
IMPRISONMENT

Ref: 2002 Kathmandu 2168

1.The Nepali "Space Time Daily" reported on June 8, 2003
that the Special Court had convicted Bhim Bahadur Basnet,
the leader of a gang involved in selling nearly one
hundred Nepali girls to the brothels in Pune, India.
Basnet, an ethnic Nepali Bhutanese refugee resident in
Nepal, was sentenced to seventy-five years' imprisonment.
This is probably the first case since the enactment of
the Human Trafficking Control Act of 2043 (1986) in which
an individual convicted of trafficking has received the
maximum sentence. Six other traffickers received
sentences of from twelve to thirty-six years. The case
began when twenty-one Nepalese girls who had been sold to
Indian brothels were rescued by the NGO Maiti Nepal(one
of USAID/Nepal's implementing partners in the anti-
trafficking program); eleven of these girls subsequently
filed a petition with the police against the gang who had
trafficked them. Most of the girls were between the ages
of fifteen and twenty at the time they were sold; they
were lured by the traffickers with promises of marriage
or attractive jobs. In India they were sold for between
$800 and $1800.

2.The paper described the sentences as "an historic
decision of the Special Courts. It is evidence of a new
seriousness on the part of the Nepalese judiciary
concerning its role in the fight against human
trafficking.

3. Comment: The U.S. "Trafficking Victims Protection Act
of 2000" mandates that governments of affected countries
should "prescribe punishment that is sufficiently
stringent to deter and that adequately reflects the
heinous nature of the offenses (Section 108a3). The
seventy-five year sentence handed down to Mr. Basnet
meets these criteria, and is a break from past practice
of meting out less stringent sentences for traffickers.
Post is encouraged that the judiciary is beginning to
take trafficking seriously. We will be further
encouraging the judiciary's role through planned training
and technical assistance under anti-trafficking and rule
of law projects funded by INL, G/TIP, and USAID. End
Comment.


4. This cable has been cleared by the Embassy Pol/Econ
section.

MALINOWSKI