THT ONLINE

KATHMANDU: Govinda Prasad Mainali, who was recently acquitted of the 1997 rape and murder of a Japanese woman after spending 15 years in jail, has claimed for multimillion yen as compensation for the wrongful imprisonment.

The Nepali national, now 46-year-old, has filed a request with the Tokyo District Court through his lawyer--seeking state compensation for 15 years of his imprisonment, according to the Japanese media.

Mainali is believed to be demanding about 68 million yen—12,500 yen per day of his imprisonment— for the wrongful verdict, The Mainichi reported on Saturday, referring to its sources. The amount is approximately USD 790,000.

“Under Japan's Criminal Compensation Act, an acquitted person is allowed to seek state damages and the sum will be determined after the government considers factors such as length of time served and degree of mental distress caused, with the amount per day ranging from 1,000 yen to 12,500 yen,” the English version of The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper wrote.

The Japanese news agency Kyodo confirmed that Mainali has sought some 68 million yen in compensation from the government for his time spent behind bars.

A permanent resident of Ilam district in eastern Nepal, Mainali was freed and sent back to Nepal after his retrial request was granted in June.

On November 7, The Tokyo High Court acquitted him of the crime in the wake of prosecutors’ admission that the DNA-based evidences indicated that another man committed the murder and they believed that the Nepali man was innocent.

Mainali had been freed in June after the DNA in a sample taken from the victim’s nails did not match that of Mainali but it matched that of semen found inside her body leading to the Tokyo High Court granting him a retrial.

Mainali had moved to Japan to work at a restaurant.

He was arrested by the local police in May 1997 after the victim’s corpse was found in a vacant apartment in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo in March 1997. Mainali lived in the neighbourhood.

He had filed a plea for retrial in 2005. He maintained his innocence throughout the trial.

Japan has already apologised to Mainali for his wrongful imprisonment.