A court in Tokyo on Thursday released a Nepali man and granted him a new trial on a high-profile 1997 murder case.Govinda Prasad Mainali, 45, has already served 15 years of the “life sentence.” He has been accused of choking to death a 39-year-old Japanese woman in March 1997. The Tokyo High Court ruled on Thursday that while Mainali had a key for the apartment where the victim’s body was found, DNA testing confirmed semen found inside the woman was not his, AFP reported. The DNA reportedly matched that of body hair collected at the scene, it added.

According to the news agency, the case grabbed headlines, particularly in Japan’s tabloid press which said the victim, a Tokyo Electric Power employee, was leading a double life as a businesswoman by day and a prostitute at night. Mainali was acquitted of murder by the Tokyo District Court in April 2000, but remained in prison pending an appeal by prosecutors, AFP said. In December that year, the High Court overturned the district court’s ruling, saying Mainali had choked the woman to death and robbed her of 40,000 yen. The Supreme Court upheld Mainali’s life sentence in 2003. Prosecutors had said Mainali, who came to Japan in 1994 and worked at a restaurant, committed the crime as he was short of money.

Published on: 8 June 2012 | The Kathmandu Post