The Tokyo High Court on Friday reversed a lower court's acquittal of a 34-year-old Nepalese man and sentenced him to life in prison for the 1997 murder of a female employee of Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The Tokyo District Court in April found Govinda Prasad Mainali, a former restaurant employee, not guilty of slaying the 39-year-old woman and robbing her of 40,000 yen, saying there was evidence posing reasonable doubt that he had strangled her.
Tokyo High Court presiding Judge Toshio Takaki, however, disagreed, saying evidence presented to the district court left no doubt of Mainali's guilt. No new evidence was presented in the case.