South Korea seeks death penalty for captain in ferry disaster

South Korean prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for the captain of a ferry that sank earlier this year, killing more than 300 people, a court official and news reports said. The prosecutors said Capt. Lee Joon-seok’s negligence and failure to rescue passengers led to the massive loss of life.

South Korea has a de facto moratorium on capital punishment and has not executed anyone since December 1997. The country’s courts, however, still occasionally issue death sentences.

Prosecutors also requested life sentences for three other key crew members during a trial at the Gwangju District Court in southern South Korea, a court official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the sentence requests. He said prosecutors asked for sentences of up to 30 years for 11 other crew members.

Fierce public anger erupted in South Korea when it became known that the 15 crew members tasked with the ship's navigation were among the first people rescued from the craft when it began listing badly. Most of those who died in the disaster were students from a single high school who were en route from Incheon, west of Seoul, to the resort island of Jeju on April 16.

"The captain made no rescue efforts after issuing a broadcast asking passengers to stay in their cabins. ... He didn't organize any rescue operations after leaving the ship," Yonhap news agency quoted prosecutors as saying during the trial on Monday. Other South Korean media also carried the comments, but the court official said he could not confirm them.

Capt. Lee and the three key crew members — a first mate, a second mate and the chief engineer — were indicted in May on homicide charges. Eleven other crew members were indicted on less-serious charges.

Court officials have said the court will issue verdicts on the 15 crew members in November.

Kook Joung-don, a lawyer for the relatives of the victims, said his clients were angry because they thought the overall requested punishment for the crew members was not strong enough. But Seoul-based lawyer Kwon Young-gook said he was skeptical about whether authorities were trying to make the crew members bear the entire responsibility for the disaster.

The sinking, one of South Korea's deadliest disasters in decades, caused nationwide grief and fury. Authorities blamed the loss of life on the overloading of cargo, improper storage, untimely rescue efforts and other negligence.

More than six months after the sinking, the bodies of 294 people have been recovered, while 10 others have not been found. A total of 476 people were aboard the ship, with 172 of them rescued.

Lee has apologized for abandoning the passengers, but said he did not know his actions would lead to so many deaths.

Many student survivors have said they were repeatedly ordered over a loudspeaker to stay on the sinking ship, and that they did not remember any evacuation order being given before they helped eachother flee the vessel.

Lee has said he issued an evacuation order for passengers. But he initially told reporters days after his arrest that he withheld the evacuation order because rescuers had yet to arrive and he feared for the passengers' safety in the cold, swift waters.

The defense in the trial has denied any collusion among the crew members, saying they were confused, injured and panicked.

The Associated Press