A South Korean appeals court has handed a sentence of life in prison to the captain of the Sewol ferry that sank last year, overturning a lighter¹ punishment by a lower court.

The high court in the southern city of Gwangju on Tuesday convicted Lee Joon-seol of the murder of 304 passengers who died when the ferry sank last April off the country's southwest coast.

In November, a lower court sentenced Lee to 36 years in jail after finding him guilty of gross negligence² and dereliction of duty for abandoning the passengers, who were mostly high school students on a school outing.

Lee's action "seriously hurt our national image, (and) is not forgivable for any reasons," according to a court statement published by the South Korean news agency, Yonhap.

The court also reduced the sentence of 14 crew members. They will now receive jail terms ranging from 18 months to 12 years, instead of the five- to 30-year sentences handed down in November.

一家韩国上诉法院判处去年翻沉的岁月号渡轮船长李俊锡终身监禁，推翻了一家法院此前做出的较轻判决。

星期二，韩国南部城市光州的高等法院判定李俊锡对304名乘客犯有谋杀罪。去年4月，岁月号渡轮在韩国西南沿海翻沉，导致这些乘客死亡。

去年11月，一家法院判定丢下乘客（大多是外出郊游的高中学生）自己弃船逃生的李俊锡犯有严重渎职罪，判处他36年监禁。

韩联社发表的法院声明说，李俊锡的行为严重损害了国家形象，无可原谅。

这家法院对14名船员减刑。他们的刑期从18个月到12年不等，而他们去年11月被判服刑五至30年。