Al Jazeera :
A man who stabbed South Korea’s then-opposition leader Lee Jae-myung in the neck in January has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, a regional court has announced.
The attacker was charged with attempted murder and election law violations after the stabbing, which was carried out before the April 10 parliamentary elections. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison sentence.
Police in the southern port city of Busan, where the attack took place, said the assailant wanted to kill Lee, then the leader of the liberal Democratic Party (DP), to prevent him from becoming president.
On Friday, the Busan District Court called the attack “a grave challenge” to the country’s election systems and an act that “significantly destroys social consensus and confidence on the basic liberal democratic principles”, according to the Yonhap news agency.
It cited the verdict as saying the attacker had long loathed Lee because of differences of political opinions, had practised stabbing his neck in advance and followed him on five public events.