Appellate court upholds life sentence for rape-murder suspect

An appellate court on Wednesday upheld life imprisonment for the suspect in last year's attempted rape and murder of a woman on a hiking trail in Seoul. Choi Yun-jong, 30, was indicted on charges of fatally beating, throttling and attempting to rape the victim he randomly picked on a hillside hiking trail in the Sillim neighborhood on Aug. 17. The victim, an elementary school teacher in her 30s, was left unattended for some 20 minutes before being taken to a hospital but died two days later. In January, a district court sentenced Choi to life in prison, saying he should be separated from society forever. The Seoul High Court upheld the previous ruling. Source: Yonhap News Agency