The Takamatsu High Court on Wednesday upheld a district court-imposed life sentence against a 52-year-old former fugitive convicted of a 1982 murder-robbery in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture.

According to the court, former bar hostess Kazuko Fukuda strangled her 31-year-old colleague, Atsuko Yasuoka, at the victim's apartment in Matsuyama in August 1982 and fled with cash and furniture worth 10 million yen.

After burying Yasuoka in a forest in Matsuyama, Fukuda underwent cosmetic surgery in Tokyo and was on the run until her July 1997 arrest in the city of Fukui just days before the statute of limitations ran out in the slaying.

The district court ruled that the slaying was not premeditated but recognized the intent to rob and handed down the life sentence as demanded by prosecutors.