Supreme Court Confirms Prison Sentence for Stella Daisy Shipowner Chairman in Case of 22 Missing Persons

The chairman of the shipping company of the Stella Daisy, in which 22 crew members went missing in a sinking accident in 2017, has been sentenced to imprisonment.

On the 11th, the Supreme Court's 1st Division (Presiding Justice No Tae-ak) upheld the original court ruling that sentenced Kim Wan-jung, chairman of Polaris Shipping, who was indicted for violating the Ship Safety Act, to six months in prison. A, the head of Polaris Shipping's Busan Maritime Headquarters, who was also indicted, had his prison sentence of eight months and a fine of 10 million won upheld. Appeals filed by the prosecution and some Polaris Shipping executives who received partial acquittals and fines were all dismissed.

Supreme Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul

Chairman Kim and A were indicted for failing to report defects such as deformation of the transverse bulkhead of the ship's ballast water tank. It was also revealed that A failed to report defects such as buckling of the upper deck hull and cracks inside the cargo hold and ballast water tank.

The first trial court sentenced Chairman Kim to six months in prison with a one-year probation, and A to one year in prison with two years probation and a fine of 10 million won. Some executives and employees who were tried together were given partial acquittals and fines.

In the second trial, the judgments of guilt and innocence did not change, but Chairman Kim and A were sentenced to six months and eight months in prison, respectively.

The court stated, "The defendants were aware of the ship's seaworthiness defects but failed to report them, so we accept the original court's judgment that they are guilty of violating the Ship Safety Act for failing to report seaworthiness defects," and added, "There is no error in the original court's ruling that misinterpreted the law and affected the judgment."

Earlier, the Stella Daisy shipping company filed a constitutional complaint arguing that punishing failure to report ship defects with imprisonment is excessive, but last month the Constitutional Court ruled the law constitutional.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.