Freed June 7 from 15 years' imprisonment for a murder he apparently never committed, Govinda Prasad Mainali declared himself full of gratitude. Speaking through his lawyer, he said, "Mujitsu, shinjitsu wo shinjite kureta saibankan ni deaete yokatta. Kansha no kimochi de ippai desu," (「無実、真実を信じてくれた裁判官に出会ってよかった。感謝の気持ちでいっぱいです"」"It's lucky I encountered a judge who believed the truth, that I'm innocent. I am very grateful").
In fact the High Court saibankan (裁判官, judge) who ordered a saishin (再審, retrial) was not the first to believe in Mainali's innocence. Twelve years earlier the accused had been found not guilty, only to be undone by a kink in Japan's legal system.
He was taiho sareta (逮捕された, arrested) in 1997 on suspicion of murdering and robbing a 39-year-old prostitute who by day, intriguingly enough, was an employee of Tokyo Electric Power Company — now best known as the bungling operator of the tsunami-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, but then a blue-chip name to have on your business card. The woman's shocking double life dominated coverage at first. The shift to the shocking injustice done to Mainali was very gradual.