South Korea has indicted the captain of the capsized Sewol ferry and three crewmembers on homicide charges.  Prosecutors also indicted the 11 other surviving crewmembers for negligence.   A month after the disaster, 281 bodies have been recovered and 23 passengers are still missing.

“The captain, a first officer and second officer, and the chief engineer escaped before the passengers leading to grave casualties,” said prosecutor Ahn Sang-don.  “The charge of homicide was applied because they did not exercise their duty of aid and relief, leading to the deaths of passengers,” he said, adding that some crew had confessed “they were thinking about their own lives.”

Authorities are also seeking to arrest members of the family that owns the company that operated the Sewol.  The son of the firm’s founder has fled to America, and Seoul is pursuing extradition.

On 16 April, the Sewol was on a routine journey from Inchon to the resort island Jeju off the Korean Peninsula’s southern tip.  Prosecutor Ahn says it was massively overloaded with cargo, which combined with a poor redesign, caused it to capsize and sink.  The passengers, mostly high school students from suburban Seoul, were told to stay in their cabins and await rescue while the captain and some crewmembers saved their own skins.  Three crewmembers were designated as ‘martyrs’ for staying on board and helping as many to escape as they could before they, too, drowned.