Ukrainian captain sentenced to 5 1/2 years over deadly Budapest boat accident

A general view of the courtroom as Judge Leona Nemeth looks on, during the day of a trial, of the Ukrainian captain of a Swiss cruise liner, charged with gross negligence leading to mass casualties after his ship collided with a tourist boat on the river Danube, in Budapest, Hungary September 26, 2023. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - A Ukrainian captain of a cruise liner was sentenced to five and a half years in prison in Hungary on Tuesday for his role in a 2019 accident in which his boat hit and sank a smaller boat on the River Danube, killing 25 South Korean tourists and two crew.

In the worst disaster on the Danube in more than half a century, the smaller tourist boat called Mermaid, with 35 people on board, sank after being hit by the cruiser under a bridge in Budapest during heavy rain.