S. Korea's highest court upholds murder conviction for sunken ferry captain
Xinhua, November 12, 2015 Adjust font size:
South Korea's highest court on Thursday upheld a murder conviction for a captain of the sunken ferry Sewol that killed more than 300 passengers, mostly high school students.
The Supreme Court said in its ruling that if the captain issued a proper evacuation order, it could have saved a significant number of lives and helped them escape from the sinking ferry.
The ruling said the captain made it impossible for passengers to evacuate on their own by ordering them to stay put in the sinking vessel while the captain himself moved into the coast guard ship.
The Sewol ferry, carrying 476 people, sank in waters off the country's southwestern island of Jindo on April 16, 2014. It claimed the lives of 304 people, more than two thirds of whom being high school students on a class trip.
Captain Lee Jun-seok, 70, and 14 other crew members enraged South Korean people as video footage showed the crew escape from the sinking ferry while most of passengers are trapped in it.
Lee was sentenced to life imprisonment as the highest court upheld the appeals court ruling. The first mate, the second mate and chief engineer were sentenced to seven to 12 years in prison for charges of gross negligence leading to death.
Other 11 crew members were also sentenced to 1.5 to 3 years in jail. Enditem