South Korea seeks 17-year jail term for attacker of US envoy

Seoul, May 17 (IANs) South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday sought a 17-year prison term for a man who attacked US ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert last year.

The prosecution sought the longer jail term at a Seoul court which heard the case wherein the South Korean man slashed the face and arm of the top US envoy to Seoul with a knife on March 5, 2015, Xinhua news agency reported.

Kim Ki-Jong, who is serving an imprisonment, was sentenced to 12 years in prison at the lower court for attacking Lippert in March last year.

Later, one and a half years of jail term was added as he assaulted a prison guard and a doctor.

Prosecutors asked the appeals court to convict him for the violation of the national security law, which the lower court acquitted him of.

The prosecution said Kim committed the crime in sympathy with North Korean ideology, noting that his crime was premeditated given a fact that he prepared a knife in advance.

Kim's lawyer insisted that he had no intention of homicide. He said it was accidental.

--IANS

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