Court martial of Gurkhas opens in U.K.

The court martial of three British soldiers implicated in the May 2001 death of fourteen-year-old David Zabaneh opened today in the United Kingdom. The three Gurkhas, riflemen Durgahang Limbu, twenty-seven; Yograj Rai, twenty-three; and twenty-four year old Ramesh Rai were originally charged with murder, but today pled not guilty to reduced charges of violent disorder. The lodging of the lesser charges was attributed to a lack of evidence. Today’s proceedings, which dealt primarily with formal legal issues, were held at the barracks in Colchester, England, where the defendants’ regiment, Two Para, was based at the time of the incident. The three are currently serving with the second battalion of the Royal Gurkha Rifles. The court martial will move to Belize on November eighteenth where it is expected to run for three or four weeks at the George Price Centre in Belmopan. Zabaneh was badly beaten by a number of Gurkha soldiers in a brawl at Raul’s Rose Garden on the night of May eleventh 2001. He died the next day following evacuation to a hospital in Tampa, Florida.