South Korean ferry crew go on trial

Family members of passengers aboard the sunken ferry Sewol struggle with a security officer (right), while attempting to attend a trial of the ferry's crew members in Gwangju on Tuesday. Ahn Young-Joon / Reuters

Victims' families hurl abuse as accused bow heads and enter not-guilty pleas

With hostile spectators cursing, shouting and weeping behind them, 15 crew members from the sunken South Korean ferry, the Sewol, appeared in court on Tuesday to enter pleas on charges of negligence and failing to save more than 300 dead or missing passengers.

Lee Joon-seok, captain of the sunken ferry Sewol, arrives at a court in Gwangju, South Korea, on Tuesday. He is among the 15 crew members to go on trial on charges ranging from negligence to homicide. More than 300 passengers, most of them students, died when the ferry sank in April. REUTERS-YONHAP

As the crew members stood with bowed heads before three Gwangju District Court judges, families of the victims struggled to contain their fury. Many wore yellow ribbons in memory of those who died in the April 16 accident, most of whom were students on a school trip.

Emotions ran high in court as family members appeared to have already convicted the crew, who were caught on video abandoning ship, the captain in his underwear, while the children, obeying orders, waited in their cabins for further instructions.

As the defendants were led in, someone in the packed courtroom shouted: "That guy is the captain, isn't he? Murderer!"

One relative held up a sign that read: "You are not human. You are beneath animals." An altercation broke out between relatives and security guards who tried to take the sign away.

Because of time constraints on Tuesday, only 11 of the 15 entered pleas of not guilty. The remaining four are scheduled to appear at a hearing in one week.

All surviving crew members responsible for the ship's navigation have been charged with negligence and with failing to do their duty to protect passengers.

Captain Lee Joon-seok and three other crew members are charged with homicide - a charge that could carry the death penalty, though South Korea has not executed anyone since late 1997.

The captain's lawyer, Lee Kwang-jae, said the factors that caused the sinking couldn't be controlled by a captain, who operated the ferry only six days a month as a contract worker. The lawyer said the captain didn't flee the ship, tried to correct the ferry's balance and asked people to wear life vests, even though he was injured. He also said the coast guard had a better ability to monitor the overall situation of the ferry from helicopters and rescue boats than the captain on the bridge.

In a statement sent to reporters via text message and read out by family representative Kim Byung-gwon before the hearing, a committee of ferry victims' families demanded strict punishments for the crew.

"They say wounds heal as time goes by, but, for us, it's like time has stopped," the statement said. "The defendants, who should have saved the passengers first, ran out first and lived. ... The defendants not only killed the passengers, they also killed the souls of the families and basic trust in our society."

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has called the crew's actions murderous, and the pervading hostility against them has raised questions about the fairness of the trial.

Nearly two months after the sinking, 292 bodies have been recovered and 12 people are still missing. Divers continue underwater searches for those believed trapped inside the sunken ship off the country's southwestern coast.

AP-Reuters

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