Four crew members of sunken South Korea ship charged with murder

Asia Bulletin Friday 16th May, 2014

four crew members of sunken south korea ship charged with murder

• The four face death penalty if convicted

• 11 other crew members also face charges of abandonment

• 20 still missing from the sunken ferry

SEOUL, South Korea - The captain and three crew members of the South Korean ship that sank last month, killing nearly 300 people, mostly high school students, have been charged with murder and face death penalty if convicted, officials said Thursday.

Chief prosecutor in the investigation Yang Joon-jin said the remaining 11 crew members have been indicted for allegedly abandoning the ship and violating a ship safety act.

The captain, Lee Joon-seok, his chief engineer, and the first and second mates were among 15 crew members who abandoned the Sewol April 16 without giving an evacuation order as the ferry sank off South Korea's southwestern coast.

Officials declined to say whether overloading of cargo led to the sinking of the five-deck ship.

The prosecutor's office, according to CNN, said the four were charged with murder, because they didn't use the ship's facilities at their disposal -- such as life rafts, life vests and announcements to evacuate passengers.

They face the death penalty, said the prosecutor's office. However, it has been nearly two decades since the capital punishment was last carried out in South Korea.

At least 20 people are still missing from South Korea's worst maritime disaster in more than four decades. A body was retrieved early Thursday from the opening of a collapsed structure inside the Sewol, Ko Myung Suk, according to a spokesman for the rescue team.

It has been a tough battle for marine divers who confront poor visibility and strong currents to find missing people from the ship. On May 6, a civilian diver died after he fainted in the water and was taken to a hospital.

"The possibility of passages collapsing is increasing as partitions are weakening," Kim Suk Kyoon, Commissioner of the Coast Guard, said in an e-mailed statement.

The ferry sank en route to Jeju Island. South Korean officials have recovered 242 bodies found inside the ferry and 42 outside the ship.

There has been a mixed response to the upcoming court proceedings of the ferry's crew members.

According to the Korea Herald, those favoring a jury trial say the magnitude of the accident requires a transparent legal review. And those on the other side of the debate say the public opinion was already prejudiced against the defendants, preventing an objective trial.

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