GWANGJU, South Korea — South Korean prosecutors called Monday for the death penalty for a ferry captain facing murder charges for abandoning his capsized ship and leaving hundreds of schoolchildren behind as it sank.

Capital punishment is rarely imposed in South Korea – no one has been put to death in almost two decades – but the sentencing recommendation underlines the raw wounds that the April 16 disaster left in this country.

On Tuesday, the first body found in three months was being recovered from the sunken ferry,  increasing the official death toll to 295, officials said.

The government task force said in a statement the body was found around a women’s toilet in the ship. The badly decayed body was being pulled up to the surface and DNA tests were planned to identify the victim, according to task force officials.

The ferry sank in April. The body is the first recovered since July 18.

Nine victims are still missing. Searches of the wreckage have been ongoing since the disaster, and family members of the missing people have urged that the underwater search effort continue.

A lawyer for the family members said Monday they rejected a proposal to hoist the ship. They worry over a possibility the remaining bodies would be swept away or damaged.

 

The capsizing of the Sewol, the result of being dangerously overloaded, killed 304 people, the vast majority of them students from a single high school. Ten bodies have not been recovered.

Lee Joon-seok, the 68-year-old captain of the Sewol, has been charged with “homicide through willful negligence” for abandoning the ferry as it went down in choppy waters off the southern coast of South Korea en route to the vacation island of Jeju.

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Prosecutors also asked the judge to hand down life sentences to three crew members facing the same charges if found guilty, the Yonhap News Agency reported. A range of prison terms is being sought for other crew members charged with abandoning their duties.

The court is expected to issue its verdict and sentences for the 15 crew members on Nov. 11.

“The accused are guilty of willful negligent murder,” the prosecution said in Gwangju district court Monday. “They put saving their lives before helping the passengers to survive, violating their duties.”

Appearing calm as he read a prepared statement in court, Lee said he had not intended for the accident to happen. But he said he deserved to die.


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