An appellate court on Friday upheld life imprisonment for a man indicted for a fatal stabbing rampage in Seoul last year, which left one stranger killed and three others wounded.

The Seoul High Court delivered the ruling for Cho Seon, 34, who went on a random stabbing rampage near Sillim Station in southwestern Seoul in July last year.

A 22-year-old male stranger was stabbed to death, while three other men were wounded in the attack.

Cho, who was a stranger to all the victims, initially told investigators that a sense of inferiority made him want to hurt people who looked happy but later claimed mental and physical disorders were the motives behind his crimes.

Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for him.

Cho’s stabbing spree, followed by another similar fatal random stabbing rampage in Bundang, south of Seoul, two weeks later, shocked the nation and led to a flurry of online posts threatening copycat crimes.

Source: Yonhap News Agency