The ferry captain who abandoned hundreds of schoolchildren when the Sewol capsized and sank off the coast of South Korea in April has been given 36 years in prison on the same day that divers called off the search for the bodies of six people still missing.
Lee Jun-seok was sentenced after a court in the city of Gwangju found him not guilty of murder but convicted him of gross negligence causing death for abandoning the sinking ship with more than 300 passengers, most of them teenagers on a school excursion, on board.
The court sentenced the Sewol’s chief engineer to 30 years after finding him guilty of homicide. The ferry’s first and second mates were given prison sentences of 20 and 15 years respectively. None of the crew members standing trial were found guilty of murder, according to South Korean media reports.
The sinking of the Sewol – and the realisation that more lives could have been saved had Lee and his crew acted differently – traumatised South Korea and prompted an angry backlash against the administration of President Park Geun-hye.
Many asked if South Korea, having risen from the ashes of war and estrangement from its neighbour to the north, had sacrificed the safety of its citizens in favour of its rapid rise to become Asia’s fourth-biggest economy.
Lee had told the court that he “deserved to die” but denied that his decision to abandon the ship with passengers still on board had effectively condemned them to their deaths.
Faced with a fierce public backlash led by grieving families, President Park quickly helped turn Lee into a figure of hate.
At times it appeared that she and other senior government officials had decided the captain was guilty before his trial had even begun. In one outburst soon after the tragedy, Ms Park described Lee’s actions as “tantamount to murder”.
Video footage showing Lee climbing on to a coastguard lifeboat while his young passengers fought for their lives only added to the public opprobrium directed at him and his crew.
Grief at the sudden loss of so may young lives turned to anger when it became clear how the tragedy had unfolded.
Before leaving his ship ahead of most of the passengers, it emerged that Lee had instructed the remaining passengers to stay put, even as the vessel began to list dramatically. Prosecutors argued that decision alone contributed to the heavy loss of life.
The tragedy also exposed serious safety flaws that contributed to what many quickly came to see as a purely man made disaster.
The Sewol had undergone an illegal redesign and was carrying more cargo than it was designed to accommodate – flaws that did not come to light until it was too late, due to cosy ties between ferry operators and regulators.
Lee (69) admitted during the trial that he had panicked and failed to take “appropriate measures”. But he added: “I swear from my heart that there was never any intention to murder.”
It was not immediately clear whether defence lawyers would appeal the verdict.
The 6,825-tonne Sewol had been en route to the resort island of Jeju on the morning of 16 April when it suddenly listed after executing a sharp turn.
Only 172 of the 476 passengers and crew were rescued. Of the 304 confirmed dead or still missing, 250 were schoolchildren.
South Korean officials today said they were calling off the search for victims with nine people still unaccounted for. “As the search prolonged for a long term, the chance of discovering missing people has become slim while [rescuers]have voiced safety risks,” Yonhap quoted the oceans and fisheries minister, Lee Ju-young, as saying.
“The government decided that the underwater search has reached its limit.”
Guardian