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Captain of doomed S. Korea ferry jailed for 36 years
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A SOUTH Korean ferry captain was sentenced yesterday to 36 years in prison for negligence and abandoning passengers when his ship sank earlier this year, but the court acquitted him of homicide, concluding there was no proof he knew his actions would cause the more than 300 deaths that shocked and outraged the country.
The highly anticipated verdict came on the same day searches were called off for the final nine victims and amid continuing grief and finger-pointing over one of the worst disasters in South Korean history.
Victims’ relatives immediately criticized the sentences for Lee Joon-seok and other crew members as too lenient, some weeping and shouting during the court proceedings.
The Gwangju District Court in southern South Korea also concluded in its ruling that Lee had issued an evacuation order and that he left the ship after rescue boats arrived on the scene, the court’s statement said.
Most passengers were teenage students, and many survivors have said they were repeatedly ordered over a loudspeaker to stay on the sinking ship.
Lee, 69, has said he issued an evacuation order. But he told reporters days after his arrest that he withheld the order because rescuers had yet to arrive and he feared for the passengers’ safety in the water.
The widely vilified captain could have received a death sentence had he been convicted on the homicide charge.
The court sentenced the chief engineer to 30 years in prison and 13 other crew members to up to 20 years in prison.
The engineer, Park Ki-ho, was convicted of homicide because he abandoned two injured colleagues, and failed to tell rescuers about them, even though he knew they would die without help, the court said.
However, it cleared two other crew members of homicide charges for the same reasons it acquitted the captain. Those crew members got 15 and 20 years in prison, it said.
Nearly seven months after the sinking, 295 bodies have been recovered but nine are missing. Officials said yesterday they’ve ended searches because there was only a remote chance of finding more bodies.
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