Thai man jailed for 1993 murder of Japanese woman

A Thai man was sentenced to nine years in prison by a Bangkok court on Monday for the murder of a Japanese woman two decades ago in Tokyo.

Veerasak Lampongsa, 41, was convicted of stabbing 33-year-old Megumi Kawachi with a fruit knife and strangling her in an apartment in the Japanese capital in March 1993.

The suspect, who pleaded guilty, stole money and other valuables before fleeing back to Thailand, according to prosecutors.

"The court found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to 18 years in jail, but as he confessed the punishment was reduced by half to nine years," a court official said.

Veerasak had been on the run until he was arrested in October last year at a bus station in southern Thailand, five months before the case's statute of limitations was due to expire.

He will serve his time in Thailand.

Bangkok and Tokyo have no extradition treaty. But Thai law allows for a Thai to be tried for certain crimes committed overseas if there is such a request by a foreign government or victim.