A new year begins with reform in Nepal

Setopati, an online news outlet, reports that change is afoot in Nepal's military justice system. According to a January 1 article:

The government has decided to cut powers of the military court of Nepal Army. The government has included the provision of trying cases of torture and disappearance in civil courts as per the amendments brought in some acts to bring them in line to the new constitution. 

Cases of torture and disappearance will now be heard in civil courts instead of the military courts. 

The Nepal Army Act 2006 already includes a provision of trying incidents of murder and rape in civil courts. But cases of corruption, theft, torture and disappearance had to be heard by a team including deputy attorney general of the government, chief of the legal department of Defense Ministry, and Judge Advocate General of the rank of at least major as per the act. 

The government has removed the terms torture and disappearance from the provision of the act in the amendment.