SOUTH KOREA: TOP COURT REJECTS DEATH PENALTY IN BRUTAL MURDER

January 16, 2013: South Korea's top court rejected arguments for reinstating the death sentence imposed on a Chinese national convicted of a gruesome murder that shocked the country.
Wu Yuanchun, an ethnic Korean, was originally sentenced to death for the rape, murder and dismemberment of a 28-year-old woman in the southern city of Suwon in April, 2012.
Wu, a migrant worker, spent six hours cutting the body into 365 pieces and individually wrapping each one in plastic.
In June, a district court sentenced Wu to death, having accepted the prosecution's argument that the murder was premeditated and that Wu had intended to sell the body parts. (Sources: AFP, 16/01/2013)