By Kim Se-jeong
The top court Friday upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a woman to 30 years in prison for murdering a man and mutilating the body with an electric saw.
According to the Supreme Court, the woman, surnamed Koh, 37, was a prostitute who arranged meetings with men through Internet chat rooms and mobile phone apps.
She met the man, Cho, 50, in May last year through a chat site. Several days later, Koh invited him to a motel room in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, and stabbed him 40 times with a knife.
Koh then bought an electric saw, plastic bags and detergent at nearby stores and cut Cho’s body into pieces. She disposed of his remains on a farm in Paju and at an industrial park in Incheon.
She bought jewelry by using the man’s credit card the following day.
During the trial in a local court, Koh claimed she killed the man because he was trying to rape her, but the court did not accept the claim and slapped her with the 30-year prison term. “Her crime was prearranged and the method of killing was cruel,” it said in the ruling. “She also did not reflect on her wrongdoing. We see her guilt as grave.”
Koh appealed, saying she was mentally unstable when she killed Cho, but the appeals court did not accept that argument, saying she was lying.