Lee Byung Kee, who served as chief of staff to former South Korean President Park Geun Hye, has been exonerated Wednesday of charges levied against him for allegedly obstructing an independent investigation into the 2014 ‘Sewol’ ferry sinking, an incident that left more than 300 people dead.
The Seoul Central District Court has ruled that he and other former senior government officials be acquitted, according to reports from Yonhap news agency.
The investigation in question was launched in January 2015 by a commission seeking to determine why the 6,800-ton ferry sank off the country’s western coast, leaving hundreds of people, mostly high school students, dead.
Lee and the eight other former top officials were indicted in May 2020 for obstructing the independent commission’s work. The prosecution then requested a three-year sentence for Lee, who has since been found not guilty.
The ferry was covering the route between the port city of Incheon and the resort island of Jeju when it sank on April 16, 2014 while sailing off Jindo Island in southwestern South Korea. The captain was sentenced in 2016 to life imprisonment for the deaths of 304 people.
The disaster sparked nationwide controversy, especially as the country’s then president could not be located for several hours after the incident.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
