8-year prison term finalized in drunken driving death of Taiwanese student

Friends of Tseng Yi-lin, a Taiwanese victim who was killed in a DUI accident in November 2020 while studying in Seoul, stage rally in front of the Seoul Central District Court in this Jan. 25, 2021 photo. Yonhap

The Supreme Court finalized an eight-year prison term, Thursday, imposed on a man charged with causing a car accident while driving under the influence of alcohol that resulted in the death of a Taiwanese student in 2020.

In a rehearing, the top court upheld a lower court's ruling that found the 52-year-old driver, only identified by his surname Kim, guilty of running Tseng Yi-lin over and killing her at a crosswalk in Seoul's Gangnam district, Nov. 6, 2020.

Kim was initially sentenced to eight years in prison, despite the prosecution's request for a six-year jail term. His sentence was then upheld by a higher court.

The ruling, however, was struck down by the Supreme Court earlier this year and sent back to a lower court for review, after the Constitutional Court ruled that a law calling for aggravated punishment against repeated offenses of drunk driving was unconstitutional.

"We have put a priority on social consensus that asks for stern punishment against drunk driving, as it not only takes the life of a driver but also the life of others and it has high possibility of threatening others' assets as well," the judges said in Thursday's ruling.

Tseng, a doctoral student studying theology at a Seoul university, was walking on a crosswalk at the time of the accident. Kim was found to have ignored traffic lights and been driving over the speed limit.

The deadly crash sparked public outrage in and outside the country after her family posted a petition calling for tough punishment for the driver on the website of the then-presidential office Cheong Wa Dae. (Yonhap)