Govinda Prasad Mainali of Ilam who was acquitted in November last year for a 1997 murder in Japan that he did not commit has received compensation worth rupees sixty million. Govinda Mainali, now 46, was convicted of killing a 39-year-old woman for which he spent 15 years in prison. In 2012 new DNA techniques used to re-examine evidence showed that the semen found inside the victim’s body was not Govinda’s, and matched that of another person’s hair found in the room where she was killed. He was granted a retrial in June and the Tokyo High Court found him not guilty on 7 November 2012.

Govinda had filed a compensation claim for 68 million yen (around 60 million rupees) at the Tokyo Disctrict Court in December last year. Japan’s Criminal Compensation Law allows those who were wrongly imprisoned to seek government compensation at a rate of 1000 yen to 12,500 yen per day (NRs 800 to 1, 1000) per day.

Speaking to BBC Nepali Service on Friday Mainali said, “It is a victory of justice but the money cannot ever bring back the productive years I had to spend in prison.” Govinda who had always claimed his innocence is also considering a separate lawsuit for damages. “The emotional and physical trauma my family and I had to go through during the years I spent in prison will take a long time to heal,” he said.

Last week Govinda Mainali published a book called Paribandama Pandra Barsa (Fifteen years of impediment) chronicling the fifteen years he spent in Yokohama Prison while maintaining his innocence.

TIMELINE

1994: Govinda arrives in Japan from Ilam and works in an Indian restaurant in Chiba

March 8, 1997: 39-year-old woman is killed in a Tokyo flat, body found a week later

March 23: Govinda arrested and initially charged with overstaying and then with murder and robbery

April 2000: Tokyo District Court acquits Govinda

December 2000: Govinda gets life sentence from Tokyo High Court

October 2003: Supreme Court upholds verdict

March 2005: Mainali files appeal for retrial with high court

21 July, 2011: Yomuiri Shimbun breaks story on prosecution suppressing new DNA evidence

26 July: Defense submits retrial request to Tokyo High Court

4 August: ‘Justice for Govinda’ and the Nihon Kokumin Kyuuenkai petition the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office to release Govinda

2 September: Prosecutors disclose to defence team that there are 42 additional items of evidence for DNA tests

8 September: Defence team learns saliva on victim was Type O blood (Govinda’s blood type is B), protests suppression of evidence

12 September: Govinda’s wife Radha and brother Indra visit him in prison amidst heavy media coverage

16 September: Prosecutors say saliva test result is insufficient ground for retrial

7 June 2012: Govinda released from prison after Japan High Court orders retrial after DNA evidence shows that the semen found inside the victim’s body was not Govinda’s

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Former CA member Sardul Miya Haque was found dead on Tuesday morning when family members discovered his body near the residential quarter of his own petrol pump in Bisanpur chok. Haque’s throat had been slit and he had sustained injuries to his stomach. The assailants have not been identified yet.

The 55-year-old had returned to the room on Monday night after attending a wedding. When he didn’t return home even in the morning the family members set out to search for him and found his body in the room in the premises of the petrol pump.

A native of Bishanpur, Kalyanpur, Haque was born in 1958 in an ordinary family. The eldest among five sons, he was responsible to look after his family. Hence he went to Gulf countries twice for foreign employment and also spent a few years working in India.

Later, he opened his own brick factory in his village. He was elected the ward secretary in 1997 and was also the president of Tarun dal, the youth wing of NC in his village.

He was elected to the Constituent Assembly as an independent candidate from the constituency number 5 of Saptari district in 2008. When it came to issues related to minorities and Muslims, he was always vocal and actively fought for their rights. After the CA was dissolved he returned to his village and was involved in business and social work. He is survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.

22 May, Kantipur

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Nepal Bar Association has expressed serious objection over the Supreme Court’s decision to grant press pass only to reporters from daily newspapers while issuing a separate pass to reporters from other media. Issuing a press release on Monday, the bar has called on the Supreme Court administration to stop such discrimination.

“It is an indirect way of putting a lid on right to information and NBA would like to bring attention of the concerned authorities for easy access of information collection,” read the press statement.

Similarly the Forum for Constitution and Law Journalists also issued a press release today expressing concerns regarding Supreme Court administration’s decision to treat reporters differently on the basis of their media affiliation. “The recent moves to restrict the press and reporters to constrict the right to information aren’t acceptable to us,” says the press statement.

The forum has demanded that the administration treat all the reporters on the same plane allowing easy access to everyone for all hearings and also mentioned that it would be compelled to seek help from Federation of Nepali Journalist and concerned international bodies.

Nepal Bar Association press release

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In a major boost to travel and tourism, Turkish Airlines announced this week that it will be linking Kathmandu directly to Istanbul and beyond from September.

This will be the only direct flight to Europe from Kathmandu, and marks the return of major international carriers to Nepal after Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and Transavia discontinued services in the past 15 years.

Adnan Aykac, Turkish airline General Manager (Northern & Eastern India). Photo: Courtesy.

“This is good for Nepal’s connectivity to the world because Turkish Airlines can now link Kathmandu with 250 destinations worldwide from our Istanbul hub,” said regional General Manager, Adnan Aykac. “We will be the brand ambassador for Nepal’s tourism.”

Turkish will start with four flights a week with departures from Kathmandu at 8:45 AM on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays with the widebody Airbus 330-300 aircraft. The flight will arrive in Istanbul at 1:40pm and passengers can connect to flights to North America, Europe and Africa.

“As the only European carrier operating to and from Kathmandu, we will have the advantage with the added benefits of our huge network,” said Adnan Aykac.

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A fire that broke out at Faces lounge in Thamel last night around 10 :30 was brought under control this morning. The fire that engulfed the building for nine hours also destroyed the popular Pligrims Book House that is housed in the same building and the adjacent Sisha Cafe and Terrace Bar and other shops.

It took more than nine hours for firefighters from Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur to douse the blaze that is believed to have destroyed property worth millions of rupees.  There have been no reports of serious injuries.

The cause of the fire is yet to be confirmed.

Books that were destroyed by the fire. Credit : Nepal Army

Nepal Army carry rescue operation after the fire in Thamel was doused this morning. Credit : Nepal Army

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Dorje Gurung, the Nepali teacher detained in Qatar last week, returned to Kathmandu on Monday night after an intense behind-the-scenes lobbying by human rights groups, diplomats and his friends around the world.

Gurung taught chemistry in the Qatar Academy where a 12-year-old Qatari student accused him of insulting Islam last month. He was fired by the school, and later detained. His classmates in Nepal and the United States launched a Facebook page which immediately got more than 2,000 likes as well as an online petition which brought thousands of signatories from around the world.

HOME SWEET HOME: Dorje Gurung hugs his mother and is welcomed back to Nepal on Monday at Kathmandu airport after being released from detention in Qatar. Photo: Alka Shrestha

But in the end, it appears to have been quiet, low-key diplomacy that brought about Gurung’s release. Said one civil society activist involved: “It was a really complex effort on multiple fronts, many that had nothing to do with each other.”

Friends and campaigners were torn between going into a full frontal attack to embarrass the Qatar government and get Gurung’s release, or lobbying behind-the-scenes to put subtle pressure on the highest levels of the Qatari hierarchy. Campaigners said full-scale publicity through the international media and social networks could have backfired.

In the end, the Qatari government also decided not to court international publicity, and quietly dropped the charges to release Gurung. There may have been much more international publicity if Gurung had been a westerner, but within Nepal social network sites have also pointed out that although Gurung got domestic media attention there are hundreds of other Nepali workers who are in detention in Qatar.

On landing back in Kathmandu on Monday, an emotional Gurung thanked everyone who campaigned on his behalf for the “gift of freedom”. He said he wept when his colleagues from the Qatar Academy came to get him when he was released from prison on Sunday.

Gurung, who taught science in Nepal and in various international schools around the world, is now with his family in Nepal. He has said he wants to start a school for underprivileged children in Nepal.

Public statement by Dorje Gurung after his release:

I still can find no words to thank you enough, words that sufficiently express my own and family’s gratitude, for the gift the thousands of you have given me. The gift of freedom! (Ask any of my friends and colleagues Qatar Academy who received me upon my release yesterday afternoon—I was just a wreck. All I could do was cry and bawl.)

Many who know me well know firstly that I don’t make promises easily, certainly not publicly, and secondly that any promise I make i don’t make lightly. As today is an exceptional day and in appreciation of your incredible thoughts and actions, I’m going make a promise to you all, to my amazing friends, teachers, colleagues, students and well wishers around the world and to myself.

A promise to make every effort to make this gift of freedom worth the time and effort you invested in winning it for me.

Read more:

Dorje Gurung in Doha News

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