Nautilus International has voiced alarm at the lengthy sentences given to the master, three senior officers and 11 other crew members of the South Korean ferry Sewol, which sank in April with the loss of more than 300 lives.Prosecutors had called for the death penalty to be imposed on the master, Captain Lee Joon-seok, who was charged with homicide. He was alleged to have caused the disaster as he was in charge of the ferry, and he had also been accused of failing to organise evacuation efforts and violating maritime law by leaving the ship before passengers.Although he was acquitted of murder at the end of a five-month trial, Capt Lee was found guilty of violating ‘seamen’s law’ and abandonment causing death and injury and was sentenced to 36 years in prison. Park Gi-ho, the ferry’s chief engineer, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 30 years. The remaining 13 crew members — including the chief officer and second mate — were sentenced between five to 20 years.Nautilus general secretary Mark Dickinson said he was appalled at the severity of the sentences. ‘From the outset, there has been a concerted drive to criminalise the officers and crew in this incident,’ he said, ‘and these extreme penalties take the practice of scapegoating seafarers to an unprecedented level.‘We have consistently raised concern about whether the crew would be given a fair trial,’ he added. ‘They weren’t and we did not expect a fair outcome. This isn’t justice — it’s an act of shifting responsibility from a government safety agency and the operating company for failings and outright illegality. Thus the sentences meted out are about assuaging understandable public anger and seem grossly unfair given the other known mitigating factors that have been highlighted in this case.‘Issues including training, experience, safety management, ship design and construction, and the effectiveness of the regulatory regime are all critical factors in this disaster,’ Mr Dickinson pointed out. ‘It is all too easy for the South Korean authorities to pin the blame on the officers and crew, while ignoring systemic shortcomings in maritime regulations and enforcement.’
ACCIDENTS
29 April 2015 - 20:38
Nautilus warns over Sewol sentences
Nautilus International has voiced alarm at the lengthy sentences given to the master, three senior officers and 11 other crew members of the South Korean ferry Sewol, which sank in April with the loss of more than 300 lives.
ACCIDENTS
29 April 2015 - 20:38
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