S.Korean court upholds lifetime sentence for ferry captain
Source: AP
By KIM TONG-HYUNG
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's top court on Thursday upheld a lifetime sentence for the captain of the ferry that sank last year, killing more than 300 people, most of them teenagers on a school trip.
The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced Lee Joon-seok, 70, to life imprisonment for charges that included homicide, the court said in a statement. The court ruled Lee committed homicide by "willful negligence," concluding he fled his ship without giving an evacuation order although, as captain, he is required by law to take measures to save his passengers. The court also upheld prison terms of 18 months to 12 years on 14 other crew members, who faced similar charges of negligence and passenger abandonment, but weren't found guilty of homicide as they were dependent on Lee's orders.
A total of 304 people died when the ferry Sewol sank off South Korea's southwest coast in April 2014 in one of the country's deadliest maritime disasters. Most of the victims were from a single high school.
Lee and his crew members have been the targets of fierce public anger because they were among the first people rescued from the ship when it began badly listing on the day it sank.
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FILE - In this April 17, 2014 file photo, South Korean Coast Guard personnel search for missing passengers aboard the sunken ferry Sewol in the waters off the southern coast near Jindo, South Korea. South Korea's top court on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, upheld a lifetime sentence for the captain of the ferry that sank last year, killing more than 300 people, most of them teenagers on a school trip. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
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