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South Korea’s ferry captain sentenced to 36 years in prison

The prosecution demanded the death penalty for the Sewol ferry captain

Lee Joon-seok EPA/KIM HEE-CHUL

Lee Joon-seok

© EPA/KIM HEE-CHUL

SEOUL, November 11. /TASS/. The Sewol ferry captain was sentenced to 36 years in prison, Yonhap news agency reported.

Prosecutors sought the death penalty for the captain, Lee Joon-seok. The Sewol ferry sunk to the south-west of the Korean Peninsula on April 16. A total of 476 passengers and crew were aboard the ship. The maritime disaster killed more than 304 people; some of them are still missing.

Nearly 174 people were rescued from the ferry. Most of the victims were students from a high school in Ansan on a sea voyage. A month after the tragedy, the captain and several other ship crew members were charged with murder.

According to the investigation, the crewmembers instructed the passengers to stay in their cabins instead of urging them to evacuate. The crewmembers themselves left the vessel.
As was earlier reported in The Chosun Ilbo daily, the rescue operation center decided to stop the search on the sunken ferry.

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South Korea Incidents Transport

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