Posted on 11/11/2014 4:06:57 AM PST by servo1969
A South Korean court sentenced the captain of a ferry whose sinking left over 300 people dead and plunged the country into prolonged mourning and soul-searching to 36 years in prison Tuesday.
Capt. Lee Joon-seok was convicted of gross negligence, but was also acquitted of a homicide charge, which claimed that he left the passengers behind while the ship was sinking. Family members of the victims, most of whom were teenagers, immediately criticized the sentence for Lee and other crew members as too lenient, some weeping and shouting during the court proceedings.
The vessel's chief engineer got 30 years, and 13 other crew members were sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. The engineer, Park Ki-ho, was convicted of the homicide charge because he abandoned two injured colleagues, escaped the ferry and failed to tell rescuers about them, even though he knew they would die without help, the court statement said.
The court, however, cleared two other crew members of homicide charges for the same reasoning used to acquit the captain of homicide, the statement said. Those crew members got 15 and 20 years in prison, it said.
The court acquitted the widely vilified Lee of the homicide charge, for which he could have received the death penalty, because it was difficult to believe that he knew his actions would cause such a huge number of deaths, according to a court statement. It said that Lee had issued an evacuation order. South Korea hasn't executed anyone since late 1997, though its courts occasionally issue the punishment.
Prosecutors and the crew members have one week to appeal, according to the court.
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I still think the North had something to do with this and if it turns out to be true it’s Drone time!
There should have been more death sentences handed down. The behavior of the captain and crew went well beyond gross negligence. They killed their passengers as surely as if they had shot them.
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