KATHMANDU, OCT 02 - Notwithstanding the intense criticism over its plan to withdraw court cases filed during insurgency and Madhes movement, the government on Sunday decided to provide amnesty to Maoist lawmaker Bal Krishna Dhungel.

The Supreme Court has slapped Dhungel with life imprisonment, along with confiscation of entire property, implicating him in the murder of one Ujjwal Prasad Shrestha in Okhldhunga district seven years ago during the armed-insurgency.

The Cabinet meeting has decided to send recommendation letter to President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav later today to grant amnesty to Dhungel, sources said. The government has declared that the case filed against Dhungel was of a political nature.

The ruling coalition partners—Maoists and the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha—had signed a four-point deal, which, among other things, commits to withdraw cases and grant amnesty to cadres of the two parties in the coalition who have been charged with crimes committed during the Maoist insurgency and the Madhes movement.

Rights defenders, including the OHCHR, have been saying that though the government has the authority to withdraw cases and grant amnesty, it cannot do so in cases involving serious crimes, which according to international laws, have universal jurisdiction.

However, this is not the first time the government is attempting to withdraw such cases following the establishment of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal after the abolition of monarchy.