Pool photo by Ahn Young-joon
The trial of the 15 crew members in the South Korean ferry crash that left more than 300 people dead, most of them children, began Tuesday. Captain Lee Joon-seok, 68, and three others have been charged with homicide and face the death penalty for last April’s accident. Two were charged with fleeing, and nine others were charged with negligence. Relatives of the victims did not hold back their anger and packed the court. One got into a fight with authorities for holding a sign that read “You are not human. You are beneath animals.” Another relative spoke on behalf of the others at the hearing, saying “Would you have done the same if these were your children? Please imagine for a moment that they were your children who died and tell the truth.” The prosecution also went for the emotional jugular, playing heart-wrenching videos of the children, including one in which a student said “I’m not a criminal, I don’t know why this is happening. I haven’t done anything that bad.”