Member of National Commission on Human Rights, Kapil Shrestha, says the case of Govinda Mainali who is serving a life-sentence in a Japanese jail for allegedly killing a Japanese woman in 1997 is a blot on the cordial realtions between Japan and Nepal. Shrestha was adressing a press conference in Tokyo last week organised by the activist group, Justice for Govinda. He had earlier visited Govinda in a Tokyo detention centre, and said he found him in reasonably good spirits. Some 80 people, including three lawyers defending Govinda and Japanese-Nepali Rajan Pradhanang, participated in the talk programme at the Catholic Centre in Tokyo.

Lawyers defending Govinda also took part, saying that the way the appellate court decided in 2000 to convict him without serious investigation or carefully analysing discrepancies in the police investigation raised some serious questions on the impartiality, fairness and efficacy of the process.