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| Death Penalty Sought for Captain in South Korea Ferry Disaster | Death Penalty Sought for Captain in South Korea Ferry Disaster |
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| GWANGJU, South Korea — Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for the captain of the South Korean ferry that sank in April, killing 304 people, most of them teenage students, in the country’s worst peacetime disaster in decades. | |
| The 69-year-old captain, Lee Jun-seok, “did nothing to help rescue his passengers,” said Park Jae-eok, the chief prosecutor, during a court hearing in this city in southwestern South Korea. “Even after he himself was rescued by the coast guard, he did nothing to help the passengers. He even hid his identity from the coast guard.” | The 69-year-old captain, Lee Jun-seok, “did nothing to help rescue his passengers,” said Park Jae-eok, the chief prosecutor, during a court hearing in this city in southwestern South Korea. “Even after he himself was rescued by the coast guard, he did nothing to help the passengers. He even hid his identity from the coast guard.” |
| Prosecutors demanded life imprisonment for three other crewmen: the first mate, Kang Won-sik; the second mate, Kim Young-ho; and the chief engineer, Park Gi-ho. They called for 15 to 30 years for 11 other crew members, who faced accidental homicide, criminal negligence and other charges. | |
| In their final argument before a court verdict expected Nov. 11, the prosecutors said that the 15 crew members of the 6,825-ton Sewol knew that their ship was sinking and that the passengers were waiting inside the ship after repeated instructions for them to stay put. Still, the crew members did not take any of the steps they could have easily taken, such as activating the emergency evacuation alarm bells, before they themselves fled the ship to get onto the first coast guard boats arriving at the scene, the prosecutors said. | |
| “They only cared about their own lives,” one of the prosecutors said before a courtroom packed with 60 family members of the victims. | “They only cared about their own lives,” one of the prosecutors said before a courtroom packed with 60 family members of the victims. |
| The Sewol sank off southwestern South Korea on April 16. It was carrying twice as much cargo as legally allowed, and much of the cargo was poorly secured, prosecutors said. | The Sewol sank off southwestern South Korea on April 16. It was carrying twice as much cargo as legally allowed, and much of the cargo was poorly secured, prosecutors said. |
| When the crew members, dressed in pea-green jail uniforms, entered the courtroom and bowed toward the family members, some of the victims’ relatives showed their hostility by making a low hissing sound. | When the crew members, dressed in pea-green jail uniforms, entered the courtroom and bowed toward the family members, some of the victims’ relatives showed their hostility by making a low hissing sound. |
| Some of the relatives of the student victims wore identical yellow jackets that said: “We will remember. We will be always with you.” One mother wore a T-shirt bearing the names of a dozen students. | |
| “The law is nonsense!” one of the fathers shouted as he stepped out of the courtroom, complaining that the punishment prosecutors were seeking for some of the crew members was too lenient. | |
| The lawyers for the captain and three others accused of murder all argued against the charge, saying that their clients had no intention of killing the passengers. They also said the blame for the disaster should not be placed on the crew alone. | |
| Crew members, the lawyers said, were also victims of a greedy ferry operator that had provided them with inadequate safety training and ignored their repeated warnings before the disaster about the overloading and instability of the ship. The ship had been remodeled to add passenger cabins to its upper decks, which investigators said left it dangerously top-heavy. | |
| When they were given a chance to make a final statement before the sentencing, 12 of the 15 crew members on trial spoke, all apologizing for the students’ deaths. | |
| “I am sorry. I will repent until the last day of my life,” said Mr. Lee, the captain. “When I look back, I feel nothing but shame.” | |
| Many defendants wept during their final statements. | |
| “I have nothing left but shame, and I am so sorry I can’t raise my face,” said Park Han-gyeol, the ship’s third mate, who was in charge as the disaster began unfolding. “Now I remember what I should have done, but when it all happened so suddenly, I could do nothing but cry like a fool. I wish I could turn the clock back.” | |
| The ship ran into trouble while making a sharper turn than usual in waters known for rapid and sometimes unpredictable currents. It was the first time that Ms. Park, 25, had been in charge of the Sewol while the ship was navigating through those waters. The captain was in his room when the ship began suddenly listing to the left. | |
| Investigators said that when the ship made the sharp turn, it lost balance because of the excessive cargo. The cargo, poorly lashed, came loose, causing the ferry to tilt further, they said. |