Uzbek Man Gets Life in Jail for Murder, Robbery

An Uzbek man was sentenced to life in prison at a South Korean court Friday for killing a taxi driver during a robbery in March.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for the 20-year-old, whose identity was withheld, for stabbing the 59-year-old taxi driver to death in his car and snatching 150,000 won ($128) in Changwon, 398km south of Seoul, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Four months later, he robbed another taxi driver in the same city with two other Uzbek men, the court said.

His accomplices were sentenced to six years in prison for armed robbery.

"The court gave a heavy sentence to the accused because he had planned a life-threatening crime to obtain money and given the brutality of the crime. Moreover, he tried to cover up the murder and committed another crime four months later," the Changwon District Court said in the ruling.

Lawyers for the murder suspect appealed for leniency, arguing he committed the crime because he ran out of money in a foreign country.