Seven months after Nepalese Govinda Prasad Mainali was last year acquitted of a 1997 robbery-murder of a Tokyo woman, his supporters launched a new civic organization to call for eradication of wrongful convictions, which they claim are still rampant in the legal system.

The new group, set up Saturday, consists mostly of supporters of Mainali, along with others who were wrongfully charged in high-profile cases, including Shoji Sakurai, who spent nearly 30 years behind bars for a murder he was later cleared of based, like Mainali, on contradictory DNA evidence.

With Mainali's release, deportation and acquittal last year, his support group disbanded in March. But its main representative, Mikiko Kyakuno, 61, said Japan's criminal investigation system is still rife with problems that need fixing. Interrogations of crime suspects must be fully recorded and prosecutors must be required to disclose all evidence they possess, she said. In Mainali's case, they had clear evidence, backed only belatedly last year by DNA tests, that indicated another man killed the woman, a Tokyo Electric Power Co. employee who moonlighted as a prostitute.