BBC NEWS | South Asia | Lawyer rally broken up in Nepal

Lawyer rally broken up in Nepal

Lawyers say rule by decree has replaced the rule of law
Nepalese police have stopped lawyers protesting against the king's seizure of power from marching on his palace.

Nepal's Bar Association said three lawyers received minor injuries when police baton-charged demonstrators in Kathmandu, but no-one was arrested.

Up to 1,500 lawyers marched demanding the restoration of civil liberties suspended after the royal takeover.

The royal palace is in one of the areas that the authorities have declared off-limits to demonstrators.

Mock parliament

When the lawyers tried to move towards the palace police blocked them and, the Bar Association's president said, beat some of them with bamboo batons.

The disturbances came a day after hundreds of lawyers at a national conference accused the king and his government of undermining the constitution and the independence of the judiciary.

They said rule by decree had replaced the rule of law.

On the same day, seven political parties opposed to the king staged a big mock session of the dissolved parliament, calling for it to be restored.

The king says his takeover was constitutional and necessary to combat a 10-year-old Maoist insurgency and corrupt politicians.

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu says the legal system in Nepal does retain independence - since February the Supreme Court has challenged many of the royal authority's actions.

But he says many lawyers have been dismayed by the chief justice's open and firm support for the royal takeover." Sphere: Related Content