Family members of the hundreds of victims who drowned in April's South Korea ferry disaster are furious the ferry's captain did not receive a heavier sentence.
Three senior crew members from the ferry Sewol were tried and convicted for their role in the deaths of nearly 300 people, mostly high school students, who died when the ferry capsized and sank on its way to the island of Jeju on April 16.
"Do you know how many children are dead?" one relative shouted as Sewol captain Lee Joon-seok was sentenced to 36 years in prison, the BBC reported. The other senior crew members were sentenced to 15 and 20 years.
"Judge, this is not right," another family member shouted.
"Is this how little the lives of our children were worth?" yet another shouted according to the BBC. "The death sentence is not enough for the crew."
The captain's sentence is a far cry from the death penalty prosecutors originally sought. He was also originally charged with murder, but the judge dismissed that charge and instead charged him and his crew members with negligence.
A grieving 30-year-old father said after the sentencing he would wait another 30 years for the crew members to be released from prison so he could go after them, the BBC reported.
Other parents demanded the prosecutors seek an appeal.
"I want to say sorry to the children, and I want to promise them that we will strengthen our resolve until we reveal the truth," Park Jong-dae, who lost a child in the disaster, told the BBC.
Another 13 crew members were also sentenced to terms of up to 20 years on charges relating to abandonment and maritime law violations. Many crew members, including Captain Lee, fled the tilting ferry as the passengers obeyed orders to stay onboard.
Of the 476 passengers, about 250 were students from the same high school, according to The Guardian. It took divers months to search for the bodies of the remaining passengers, with the search being called off after 295 bodies were found.
Nine remain missing.
