Five South Korean men were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on Tuesday for jointly taking part in the murder of a wealthy South Korean businessman in the Philippines, the country's top court said.
The Supreme Court of Korea upheld an appellate court's 17-year prison term for a 35-year-old man, surnamed Yoon, while also confirming the roughly 15-year terms for the three other men, all in their early 30's, over the murder case in August of last year.
One more man -- surnamed Song, age 42 -- was also sentenced to a 5-year term in connection to the crime.
The five men plotted to rob the deep-pocketed businessman surnamed Jung after losing a heavy sum of money at a casino. They kidnapped the 41-year-old businessman in Manila and strangled him to death in Angeles, a Philippines city northwest of the capital, according to court records.
After collecting Jung's cash and credit cards, they buried his body in the backyard of a residence located in a Korean town in Angeles. They later rented the house for a year, apparently in order to cover up the murder, according to the court.
The five men, all friends from the same youth reformation center or the same home town, made a living out of gambling and luring South Koreans to gamble in the Philippines.
Jung was on a business trip in the Philippines and had met his murderers at a hotel casino in Manila. (Yonhap News)
