INCHEON, South Korea (AP) -- Less than two months after the ferry Sewol sank, court proceedings over the disaster are set to begin for 15 crew members over the disaster - four of them for homicide. The job of defending them falls almost entirely on six state-appointed lawyers, three of whom started practicing law only this year.
The defendants are surrounded by hostility in South Korea, all the way up to President Park Geun-hye, who has called the crew's actions murderous. Private lawyers have abandoned their cases. Even the family of a deceased crew member who was praised as a hero speaks of him with shame.
The anger raises questions about the fairness of the crew members' impending trial, details of which will be worked out at a June 10 court hearing in Gwangju. All surviving crew members responsible for the ship's navigation have been charged with negligence and with failing to do their duty to protect passengers in the April 16 disaster.
Authorities have recovered 288 bodies and continue to look for 16 others in the wrecked ship off South Korea's southwestern coast.
There are allegations that the ferry operator, Chonghaejin Marine Co., dangerously overloaded the vessel and gave crew members inadequate emergency training, and some company officials also have been arrested. But they may be better able to defend themselves than the crew. The fugitive head of Chonghaejin, Yoo Byung-eun, is a billionaire. The Sewol's captain, Lee Joon-seok, reportedly made 2.7 million won ($2,635) a month.
And it is the crew members, not the company higher-ups, who appeared in widely televised "perp walks" in the first weeks of the disaster, when fury was at its highest.
"People say this is a public opinion trial. To put it in other words, it is a witch trial," said Kang Jung-min, a lawyer who met the captain and two crew of the Sewol while they were in custody in April. "It is possible that rulings would correspond with public sentiment, rather than judgments based on objective facts and legal principles."
Kang cited early media reports about the captain and crewmembers that rendered them as evil. For example, South Korean media reported that the captain was drying his money at the hospital while passengers were still trapped in the ship, which Kang said the captain denied.
The court will guarantee the rights of both the defendants and the victims and faithfully investigate evidence for a speedy and fair trial, the Gwangju District Court said in a statement.
Even the family of chief officer Yang Dae-hong, who died on the ship while rescuing others, said a pang of guilt has not escaped them.
In his last phone call to his wife while the ship was sinking, Yang told her where to find savings for their children's college tuition, then said he had to go save students and hung up. Survivors said the 45-year-old returned to the sinking ship after helping them escape to safety.
"People call him a hero. But he was crew on Sewol and he was responsible for taking care of the passengers. So he is a criminal," said Yang's eldest brother, Yang Dae-hwan. "If my brother is a criminal, I'm also responsible as his older brother.
"I want to spend the rest of my life keeping victims deeply in my heart," he said.
Before being arrested, Oh Yong-seok, one of the three helmsmen at the ferry, told The Associated Press that at least some crew members, including himself, left the ship because it had listed so severely that it was impossible to rescue passengers from inside the vessel. Oh said he and other crew members helped the coast guard rescue passengers from rescue boats, breaking windows with a hammer and pulling passengers out.
Indictment papers written by prosecutors do not address any efforts made by crew members after they escaped the ferry.
