Lee Jun-seok, the captain of the South Korean ferry that capsized in April and left more than 300 people—mostly teenage students—dead, was sentenced to 36 years in prison for abandoning the vessel during evacuation. He was acquitted of murder, for which prosecutors were seeking the death penalty.
In judge Lim Joung-youb's ruling Tuesday, he said Lee was guilty of having "abandoned his passengers, knowing that they were waiting for instructions from the crew and that if they were not evacuated, their lives would be at risk."
The Sewol capsized in April attempting to make a turn, and was later discovered to be overloaded with passengers and cargo and insufficiently loaded down with water in the ship's ballast tank. Of the ship's 476 passengers and crew, 304 have been confirmed dead, 250 of which were students. Nine bodies are still missing. Many of the victims died after the ship's crew implored them to stay in their cabins as the ship was sinking. The ship's billionaire owner, Yoo Byung-Eun, was found dead after disappearing shortly after the Sewol's sinking.
Four of the ship's crew, including the captain, faced murder charges. Only one, Park Gio-ho, the ship's chief engineer, was convicted of murder—he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for abandoning two injured cooks who he could have otherwise saved.
The ship's first and second mates, Kang Won-sik and Kim Young-ho, were sentenced Tuesday to 20 and 15 years in prison, respectively. Additionally, 11 other crew members were sentenced to five to 10 years. According to the New York Times, no lawyers offered their services to the crew members; one was defended by a court-appointed attorney.
In the course of the five-month trial, Reuters reports, the crew claimed they believed it was the coast guard's responsibility to rescue passengers and that they were not adequately trained to handle the disaster. Most eventually admitted to not having done enough.
When the judge rendered his verdict Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reports, one mother shouted amongst the cries of anguish, "It's not fair. What about the lives of our children?"
[Image via AP]
