Students describe ferry disaster
July 28, 2014
The teenaged students who agreed to testify at the trial, began doing so at the district court in Ansan City, just outside of Seoul on Monday.
The students were testifying under special arrangements designed to avoid making them feel intimidated. They were not required to appear in the main courtroom, giving their testimony from a nearby room via video and accompanied by a parent.
Their names were not made public and the video was only visible to the judges, the prosecution and the defense team. Their testimony, though, could be heard by the entire court room.
In another move meant to make the students' task less daunting, the entire judicial entourage traveled to Ansan City, where they live, to hear their two days of testimony. It wasn't clear exactly how many students were set to give their accounts of the disaster, with news agencies saying as few as 17 and as many as 23 could take the stand.
The actually trial is being held in Gwangju, 265 kilometers (165 miles) south of Seoul.
Death penalty possible
The captain of the Sewol ferry, Lee Joon-seok and three others senior crew members are on trial on charges including "homicide thourgh wilful negligence." If found guilty, all four could face the death penalty.
Eleven other crew members are on trial on lesser charges.
Most of the charges stem from the fact that the captain and others on trial abandoned ship while hundreds of passengers were still trapped inside the heavily listing ferry.
Of the 476 passengers on board the ferry when it capsized on April 16 off of South Korea's southern coast, 325 were students from Dawon High School in Ansan City, who were on a field trip. Only 75 of them survived.
Their testimony comes just days after the authorities announced that a body found in an orchard in the south of the country last month was that of Yoo Byun-eun, who owned the company that operated the ferry.
He had been on the run from police, who were seeking to question him on allegations of criminal negligence, embezzlement, and tax evasion.
pfd/jr (AFP, dpa)