French court denies extradition of Sewol ferry owner's daughter

France's top appeals court has overturned the ruling that authorized the extradition of the eldest daughter of the late owner of the Sewol ferry.

Yoo Som-Na, the daughter of Yoo Byung-Eun who was the de-facto owner of the company operating the doomed Sewol ferry, has been detained in Paris on an Interpol arrest warrant filed by Seoul for embezzlement. The ferry capsized almost a year ago killing more than 300 people, mostly high school students.

At an appeals trial in January, a French court ordered Yoo's extradition saying that based on the trials of other Yoo family members and material sent by the Korean government, she would get a fair trial in South Korea. This time, however, the top appeals court's ruling has made her repatriation to Seoul uncertain.