S Korea’s sunken ferry captain gets life behind bars

A South Korean appeals court has sentenced the captain of the sunken Sewol ferry to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of murdering more than 300 people in the 2014 disaster.

The 69-year-old captain was acquitted of homicide charges in November, but the appeals court in the southern city of Gwangju on Tuesday overturned the decision and condemned him to 36 years in prison.

Most of the 304 victims were high school students on a field trip and their families had been outraged by Lee Jun-Seok’s homicide acquittal.

During the appeal hearing, prosecutors had asked the court to reconsider the most serious charge of murder through gross negligence and emphasized that the captain deserved execution as he had ordered his passengers to remain on-board the vessel in the clear knowledge that they would die.

"Captain Lee's irresponsible activity led to the death of young students who perished without realizing their dreams... and he inflicted an incurable injury on their parents," the high court said in its ruling.

"He gave up his duty as captain... and must be separated forever from our society," it said and added that the captain’s actions had seriously tarnished South Korea's national image.

The passenger ship capsized off South Korea’s southwestern island of Jindo on April 16 last year while carrying 476 people, of whom 350 were students from a high school in the city of Ansan, just south of the capital, Seoul.

The tragedy shocked South Korea after video footage showed that Lee and his crew have been escaping the vessel while hundreds remained trapped on board.

At the original trial, Lee said he had committed a crime for which "I deserve to die," but he strongly dismissed that he had any intention to sacrifice the lives of the passengers.

Fourteen crew members were given prison terms ranging from five to 30 years in November. However, the appeals court reduced them to between 18 months and 12 years.

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