Human Rights activists visiting Govinda Mainali at the Tokyo Detention Centre last week says he's doing well-except of course the ordeal of having to spend time in a foreign jail for a crime he did not commit. After a prolonged trial beginning in 1997, the Nepali migrant worker was sentenced to life imprisonment on 22 December 2000. He was charged of murdering Yasuko Watanabe. Shortly afterwards, Mainali was tried at the Tokyo District Court, but on 14 April, 2000, judge Toshikazu Obuchi had pronounced him not guilty. Mainali was to be freed but the prosecutor filed an appeal and demanded the Tokyo High Court continue to detain him. The court complied with the request and in the trial that followed, even though there was no new evidence, the chief judge of the court Takagi Toshio, reversed the lower court's decision. Mainali was then sentenced to life imprisonment. This seemingly double-standard treatment meted out to a Nepali migrant worker whose only crime, if any, was over staying the visa permit, has galvanised many Japanese and Nepali nationals in Japan to form the "Justice for Govinda" group. They believe that Mainali is innocent and are fighting to create public opinion in favour of Mainali and to lobby for his fair trial and acquittal.