Defense in Sewol trial warns of scapegoating

SEOUL: The trial of 15 crew members from South Korea’s ferry disaster resumed on Tuesday, with the defense team warning against making the defendants the sole scapegoats for a national tragedy.

The second day of hearings was notable for one defendant, the ferry’s first engineer, admitting charges of criminal abandonment resulting from the crew’s decision to escape the sinking vessel while hundreds of passengers remained trapped.