A French court has sentenced a Chilean man to 28 years in prison for murdering a female Japanese student in France.

Nicolas Zepeda was accused of killing his former-girlfriend and University of Tsukuba student Kurosaki Narumi. She went missing in 2016 when she was studying in Besancon, eastern France.

French prosecutors indicted Zepeda based on circumstantial evidence and were seeking a life sentence.

Prosecutors say Kurosaki dined at a restaurant with Zepeda and then returned to her student dormitory shortly before she disappeared. Her body has not been found.

Zepeda has admitted to going to the dormitory with Kurosaki, but maintains that he left the premises alone.

He reasserted at his trial on Tuesday that he was not a killer.

The court said at the sentencing that the murder was premeditated.

Zepeda's lawyers say they will discuss with the defendant whether to appeal.

Zepeda returned to Chile shortly after Kurosaki's disappearance. French judicial authorities placed him on an international wanted list. He was extradited from Chile to France in July 2020.

The lawyer for Kurosaki's family, Sylvie Galley, told reporters that the family was relieved at the guilty verdict.

Galley said the family will return to Japan while suffering greatly because many details were left unrevealed in the trial. But, she said, they will also return with the feeling that the court has understood their pain.