South Korean court upholds life sentence for ferry captain
A South Korean court has decided to uphold a lifetime prison sentence for the captain involved in the deadly sinking of a ferry last year, which claimed the lives of over 300 people.
On Thursday, South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision to sentence Lee Joon-seok to life in prison.
The court ruled that the 70-year-old had committed homicide by “willful negligence” for fleeing his ship before giving an evacuation order to ensure the safety of his passengers.
Last April, 304 of the ferry’s 476 passengers, which included mostly high school students, died after the Sewol passenger ferry sank off the South Korean coast.
Although Lee says he issued an evacuation order, many survivors say they were repeatedly ordered to stay on the sinking ship over a loudspeaker.
The captain was first found guilty of murder in an appeals court in April.
Rescuers recovered 295 bodies from the shipwreck and water, before underwater searches were halted by the government last November. Nine victims are still missing.
In October, the supreme court sentenced Kim Han-Sik, the head of the Chonghaejin Marine Co. which operated Sewol, to seven years in prison after he was found guilty of manslaughter and embezzlement.
A number of crew members have also been sentenced to terms ranging from five to 30 years in prison.
South Korea is paying a consortium led by China’s state-run Shanghai Salvage Company some $74 million to raise the ship by next year.
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