Ferry captain sentenced

The BBC has an article by Steve Evans about the Korean ferry disaster:

Lee Joon-seok, the captain of the South Korean ferry (photo, center, in hoodie) which sank in April of 2014 has been found guilty of gross negligence and sentenced to 36 years in prison.
The Sewol ferry was carrying nearly five hundred people when it went down; more than three hundred died, most of them school students.
The captain was among fifteen crew members on trial over the sinking, one of South Korea's worst maritime disasters. Prosecutors charged him with homicide and called for the death penalty, but judges acquitted him on that charge.
Lee is in his late 60s, and he accepted in court that he would spend the rest of his days in jail, according to the BBC's correspondent in Gwangju.
The judges said that he was clearly not the only person responsible for the tragedy, and they accepted that his negligence did not amount to an intent to kill. The disaster was blamed on a combination of illegal redesigns, the overloading of cargo, and the inexperience of the crew member steering the vessel. Crew members did not secure cargo which moved when the vessel took a tight corner, toppling the ferry, and Lee was filmed leaving the sinking ship while many passengers remained inside.
During the trial, Lee apologized for abandoning them. Fourteen other crew members were jailed on a raft of charges
The chief engineer of the ferry, identified only by his surname, Park, was found guilty of murder and jailed for thirty years. Thirteen other crew members were given jail sentences of up to twenty years on charges including abandonment and violating maritime law.
Relatives of victims were distraught at the verdict, with some weeping. The AFP news agency reported that one woman screamed in the courtroom: "It's not fair. What about the lives of our children? They deserve worse than death." 

Analysis by Stephen Evans, BBC News, Gwangju:

When the judgement was handed down, there were cries of anguish and anger from some of the bereaved families in the court. They had wanted the verdict to be murder as a mark of the seriousness of the negligence committed by the people in charge of the ship.
One bereaved father said after the judgement that he was thirty years old, and that if he had to wait thirty years for the guilty ship's officers to come out of jail, he would, and then he would go after them.
The case has been the focus of wider anger. The man who will never face trial is the owner of the company. As the authorities pursued him, the chairman of the operating company, Yoo byung-eun, fled, and was later found dead in a field.

Just hours before the verdict, the South Korean government finally called off the search for bodies in the vessel, which sank on 16 April 2014. A total of 295 bodies have been retrieved by teams of divers, but nine people remain unaccounted for.
The disaster triggered nationwide grief, followed by outrage, and led to severe criticism of safety standards and of the government's handling of the rescue operation.
The South Korean Coast Guard is due to be disbanded and replaced with a new agency, after accusations that it did not act swiftly or aggressively enough to save lives.
325 students, aged between sixteen and seventeen, from Danwon High School, south of Seoul, were on a school trip to the holiday island of Jeju when the ferry sank. Only about seventy survived, many obeying orders to stay put as the ferry listed
Several texted their family members goodbye and to tell them "I love you". One also filmed what turned out to be his last moments on his mobile phone inside the ship. The texts and footage were retrieved by parents and later broadcast on national television.
Some of the survivors later testified that they had to float out of cabins, and most of the crew members did not attempt to help them
At least three crew members did die trying to evacuate passengers. They included an engaged couple, Jung Hyun-seon and Kim Ki-Woong, and the youngest crew member, Park Ji-young, who gave her lifejacket to a passenger. All three have been named "martyrs" by the government
At the end of the trial, Lee said he had committed a crime for which he deserved to die, but denied that he had intended to sacrifice the lives of the passengers, and asked not to be branded as a murderer.
The widespread outcry over the case had led to doubts over whether the crew would get a fair hearing. A separate trial is taking place for employees of the firm that operated the ferry, Chonghaejin Marine. The owner of the company, billionaire businessman Yoo Byung-eun, disappeared after the disaster and was later found dead. Meanwhile last week three of his relatives were jailed for embezzlement, while a French court is due to decide next month on whether to extradite Yoo's daughter on similar charges.

Rico says you'd think they'd've given Lee a year for every dead passenger...