Nepal Army Colonel Kumar Lama, who is facing trial in Britain on charge of torturing two civilians in Kapilvastu battalion in 2005, will not appear in the court to testify as planned apparently on the advice of his solicitors.

Sources said the solicitors had cautioned Lama that any testimony he provides in the court might not be helpful for him. Lama is being tried at Central Criminal Court in London.

A senior justice from Old Belly Court, who was chairing the 12-member jury in the case, had asked Col Lama if he would like to give his statement to the court. Although experts had recorded statements on behalf of the petitioners during the court proceedings last year, the hearing of the case was adjunct at the time after petitioners could not record statements on their own due to unavailability of interpreters.

Nepal have made several diplomatic and political efforts for Lama’s release. Lama was serving with the United Nations peace keeping force in South Sudan when he was arrested while visiting his family in East Sussex in January 2013.