South Korea court finds ferry captain guilty of homicide for 304 deaths

A relative of a victim of the Sewol ferry disaster weeps as she is escorted by other relatives along the deck of a boat during a visit to the site of the sunken ferry, off the coast of South Korea's southern island of Jindo April 15, 2015. REUTERS / POOL / Ed Jones

SEOUL (Reuters) - 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 jail.