The captain of a South Korean ferry that sank last year, killing 304 people, was found guilty of homicide by an appeals court on Tuesday and sentenced to life in prison, overturning an earlier conviction for negligence.
Prosecutors who had originally sought a homicide conviction for ferry captain Lee Joon-seok appealed against a decision by a lower court in November that found him guilty of negligence and sentenced him to 36 years in jail.
Defence lawyers for Lee had also lodged an appeal against the severity of the earlier sentence but their appeal was rejected by the Gwangju High Court.
