The Supreme Court has upheld an appeals court ruling that handed down a sentence of life imprisonment to a man who set his apartment on fire and fatally stabbed residents while fleeing the building. 

The top court on Thursday upheld the previous ruling issued by the Busan High Court for Ahn In-deuk, who killed five people and injured 17 others in the arson-homicide incident in the southeastern city of Jinju in April 2019. 

In making its ruling, the Busan court reduced the sentence from the death penalty handed down by a lower court after assessing that Ahn's criminal actions were driven by schizophrenia and paranoia that his neighbors were attacking him. 

The Supreme Court said it had found no fault in such a ruling made by the appeals court.