The Supreme Court (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld lower courts’ acquittal of nine former officials of the Korea Coast Guard, who were all charged with failing to carry out their duty in the rescue operation for the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014.
The top court said there was no mistaken understanding of the law in the lower courts’ rulings that found Kim Suk-kyoon, then chief of the Korea Coast Guard, and eight other former maritime police officials not guilty of charges, including professional negligence, in the disaster that killed 303 people, mostly high school students.
In one of the country’s worst disasters, the ferry sank off the southwestern coast on April 16, 2014, along with 250 high school students and 11 teachers, who were traveling to the southern resort island of Jeju on a school field trip.
Kim and the eight others were indicted in February 2020 on charges of failing to fulfill their duty in the rescue of the Sewol passengers.
(Yonhap)
