Gobinda Mainali, the Nepali accused of murdering a Tokyo woman in 1997, has started his life sentence and has reiterated his innocence during a visit by his wife. Radha Mainali had travelled to Tokyo to see her husband before he is transferred to another jail, and reportedly told his wife: "Can you imagine how it feels for an innocent man to be kept in prison for years?" Although acquitted by the Tokyo District Court, Mainali was sentenced to life by the Tokyo High Court in 2001 -a sentence upheld by the Supreme Court last month.

"If prison is a place where those who committed crimes learn to be better, how can an innocent man like me spend my time there?" Radha Mainali quoted her husband as saying. Gobinda's fight for justice is being supported by Japanese judicial reform activists, who say there has been a serious miscarriage of justice. During Friday's meeting with Radha, Mainali expressed concern about how she and their two daughters would get by during his imprisonment, which could last at least a decade. "I cried every day since hearing the Supreme Court rejection, until I saw him," Radha told the Japan Times. "But I no longer do so, after seeing him standing firm and worrying about our family more than himself."

Mainali's lawyers said they plan to file an official request with the Tokyo High Court for a retrial, hopefully sometime early next year. The Criminal Procedure Law allows convicts to pursue a retrial in the event of potentially exonerating evidence.

The high court convicted Mainali based on circumstantial evidence: he admitted engaging in sex with the woman and had a key to the vacant apartment where her corpse was found, and a used condom found in the apartment's toilet contained sperm that matched his DNA. His lawyers have and will again argue that Mainali had no reason to kill the woman, who by day worked at Tokyo Electric Power Co and moonlighted as a prostitute. They will also argue that the condom had been left 10 days before the slaying.