Supreme Court finalizes 5-yr prison term for driver in deadly car crash near City Hall
The driver, center, of a car that plowed into a sidewalk, killing nine people, undergoes questioning ahead of the court's decision on whether to issue an arrest warrant for him in the Seoul Central District Court, July 30, 2024. Yonhap
The Supreme Court on Thursday finalized a five-year prison term for a man convicted of killing nine people after ramming his car into pedestrians near Seoul City Hall.
The 69-year-old, surnamed Cha, killed nine people and injured five others in July 2024 after driving his car into a one-way road in the reverse direction and plowing through a sidewalk guardrail.
The top court upheld an appellate court sentence of five years in prison without forced labor.
During the first trial, judges had handed down a sentence of 7 1/2 years in prison after counting the individual deaths and injuries as separate crimes resulting from separate actions.
The appellate court, however, ruled that the crimes resulted from a single action and reduced the sentence to five years.