A South Korean court on Wednesday upheld an eight-year prison sentence handed down to a Korean man who killed a Taiwanese student while driving under the influence of alcohol in Seoul last year.

The appellate division of the Seoul Central District Court handed down the prison term to the 52-year-old man, surnamed Kim, for hitting and killing 28-year-old Elaine Tseng (???), while drunk driving in the southern Seoul ward of Gangnam on Nov. 6., Yonhap News Agency (YNA) reported.

The ruling upheld a lower court conviction based on anti-DUI law violations in April.

Tseng, a doctoral student studying theology at a Seoul university, was crossing the road at the time of the accident. The driver was found to have ignored the traffic lights and been driving over the speed limit.

“The bereaved family only wishes for stern and reasonable punishment against the driver and is unwilling to accept any financial reparations or apology,” the court said, stressing there is no grounds to change the lower court’s ruling.

During a lower court hearing, Kim admitted to his crime, but pleaded for leniency, claiming he had difficulty driving at the time because a contact lens he was wearing was momentarily dislodged and his eyesight was poor.

The lower court dismissed his plea and levied a heavier sentence than the six-years prosecutors were seeking, pointing out that Kim had previously twice been found guilty of drunk driving.

After Tseng’s death, her parents and a South Korean friend launched a petition on the presidential office website Cheong Wa Dae on Nov. 23 calling for the maximum sentence for vehicular homicide to be raised, to ensure the punishment would be severe enough to prevent similar tragedies from occurring.

The petition reached the required 200,000 signatures needed for a government response in just five days.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel