The South Korean Supreme Court on Thursday upheld sentences for three men convicted of murdering a tourist from their country and putting the body in a barrel before dumping it in a reservoir near Pattaya in Thailand

The court sentenced a 28-year-old man to life imprisonment and a 40-year-old man to 30 years in jail. The third person, 27, was given 25 years, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The ruling upheld the same sentences against the three handed down earlier by the Court of Appeals and the Changwon District Court.

All were charged with robbing, murdering, concealing and abandoning the body of a 34-year-old Korean man in May last year. They put the body of the victim in a plastic barrel and dropped it into the Map Prachan reservoir in Bang Lamung district in Chon Buri, near Pattaya.

Yonhap withheld the names of the murderers. Its earlier report said one was arrested in Phnom Penh, another in Vietnam and the third at his house in Jeongeup city, about 200 kilometres south of Seoul.

Thai police have identified them as Lee Yong Jin, Lee Roun and Kim Haeonne Won. The victim’s name was Roh Eui Jong, 34.

South Korean police found the men living off money obtained from voice scams and demanding money from the victim’s family after his death. Other South Korean tourists were also robbed by the trio, the South Korean news agency said.