Kathmandu court finds Lamichhane guilty of rape

A single-judge bench of the Kathmandu District Court has found Sandeep Lamichhane guilty of raping an 18-year-old woman and has fixed January 10 for sentencing, according to Reuters.

The court, however, has concluded that the victim was not a minor at the time of the incident, as had been reported earlier. The next hearing on the matter will determine Lamichhane's sentence. He is currently out on bail.

Lamichhane could face up to 10 years in jail. His lawyers said he would appeal the verdict to a higher court.

"We did not expect this judgement... we are frustrated," lawyer Sabita Bhandari Baral told Reuters about Friday's verdict by the Kathmandu district court. "We'll definitely appeal."

On Friday, the day of his conviction, Lamichhane had led PARSA Club XI to a win over Nepal Army Club in a Nepal Pro Club Championship match in Birgunj.

In early September last year, Lamichhane, then the Nepal captain, was suspended by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) after an arrest warrant was issued against him in Kathmandu over the matter. It followed the news that a complaint against Lamichhane had been lodged in a Kathmandu police station.

At the time, Lamichhane was in the West Indies with Jamaica Tallawahs taking part in CPL 2022. The club announced that Lamichhane would be leaving the tournament with immediate effect. Upon landing at the airport in Kathmandu in early October, he had been taken into custody.

Shortly before being arrested, Lamichhane had written on Facebook that he would "fully cooperate in all stages of the investigation and will fight a legal battle to prove my innocence" and called it a "conspiracy and wrongful allegation".

He returned to the Nepal side in February this year - amid protests from rights groups at home - for a Cricket World Cup League 2 tri-series at home, against Namibia and Scotland, where no player from the opposition teams shook his hand at any stage. Subsequently, he was not considered for Nepal's squad for the Cricket World Cup League 2 tri-series in Dubai in early 2023, but joined the team later as an injury replacement. He has continued to turn out for Nepal since, including at the ODI World Cup qualifier in Zimbabwe and the ODI Asia Cup.