Man wins appeal in bizarre gasoline suicide case

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean man won his appeal against a one-year jail term for assisting in a suicide by throwing a lighter to his gasoline-soaked rival in love.

The Seoul appeal court reversed a lower court ruling, saying that the 30-year-old man had not believed the ex-lover of his girlfriend would actually set light to himself, Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday.

Last September, the former boyfriend had stopped the couple in their car after dousing himself in petrol, threatening to kill himself is she did not get out.

The defendant then threw him a lighter, saying: "Go ahead and kill yourself," the news agency said.

The man died of his burns.

The appeal court ruled that the fact the ex-lover had given his own cigarettes and lighter to a friend so they would not get damaged by the petrol and had not left a will showed he had not planned to commit suicide.

(Reporting by Kim yeon-hee, writing by Jonathan Thatcher)