A Bolivian court has sentenced a local tribal chief to 15 years in prison for murdering a South Korean tourist back in 2018. 

According to local media on Thursday, the Copacabana court in the state of La Paz issued the sentence to Roger Choque Mendoza, the leader of the Challa tribe. 

The South Korean woman’s body was found in Isla Del Sol near Lake Titicaca on January 11, 2018. Autopsy results concluded that the woman died of hypovolemic shock from blood loss after sustaining nearly a dozen stab wounds. 

Mendoza was arrested in May 2019, over a year after the body was found. Local police officials had initially failed to make headway in the investigation as the Challa tribe had overwhelming autonomy over Isla de Sol. The arrest came only after South Korea pressed the local police to re-investigate the case. 

Mendoza, for his part, has denied the murder charges.