Most of the victims were high school students on a field trip. The courtroom dominated Lee dedicated murder by “willful negligence”, concluding he fled his ship with out giving an evacuation order though, as captain, he’s required by law to take measures to save lots of his passengers.
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Upholding a lower court’s ruling, the Supreme Court said Lee Jun-seok, 70, willfully neglected his duty as a captain to evacuate passengers when the ferry sank off the southwest coast on April 16, 2014.
Although Lee says he issued an evacuation order, many survivors say they were repeatedly ordered to stay on the sinking ship over a loudspeaker.
Last April, 304 of the ferry’s 476 passengers, which included mostly high school students, died after the Sewol passenger ferry sank off the South Korean coast.
Captain Lee Jun-Seok and his crew were publicly vilified, especially after video footage emerged showing them escaping the vessel while hundreds remained trapped on board.
Lee’s conduct of neglecting the passengers, as the captain who holds “a comprehensive and absolute authority” onboard, was practically an act of murder, the court said, referring to it as an all-out abandonment of his duty.
In his first trial a year ago, Lee had been acquitted of homicide and convicted instead of gross negligence.
Lee’s failure to take measures to save his passengers made it impossible for many to escape, the court said, meaning it was as if he had drowned them himself.
In November last year, Lee was sentenced to 36 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
Preparations began this summer to salvage the ferry, which remains at the bottom of the sea along with nine missing bodies.
The tragedy touched off an outpouring of national grief and soul-searching about public safety.
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Relatives of victims killed in the Sewol ferry disaster visit the site where the ferry sank on the eve of the first anniversary of the disaster on April 15, 2015.
