Sewol captain guilty of murder, prosecutors say

The captain of the Sewol ferry that sank in April with the loss of 304 lives, mostly students from the same high school, murdered his passengers by intentionally abandoning them to certain death, a South Korean appeals court heard on Tuesday.

Prosecutors argued for a homicide conviction at the first in a series of hearings that will include appeals from both the prosecution and defense in the case of Captain Lee Jun-seok and 14 of his surviving crew.

The 15 defendants were handed jail terms in November ranging from five to 36 years for their roles in the tragedy, which plunged the entire country into a lengthy period of mourning.