South Korea ferry captain jailed for 36 years as search for bodies ends Sewol ferry captain Lee Joon-seok, in green prison garb with glasses, sits with crew members at the start of the reading of the verdict in Gwangju on Tuesday. Gwangju: A South Korean court on Tuesday found Lee Joon-seok, the captain of a ferry that capsized in April killing more than 300 passengers, guilty of negligence and sentenced him to 36 years in jail, but acquitted him of the homicide charge for which prosecutors had sought the death penalty. The ship's chief engineer was found guilty of homicide for not aiding two injured fellow crew members and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. The overloaded ferry Sewol had capsized while making a turn on a routine voyage to the holiday island of Jeju. A man looks at portraits of the Sewol ferry disaster's victims on a poster in Seoul on Tuesday. The government has called off the search for nine bodies still missing, citing winter conditions. Video footage of the crew abandoning the vessel after instructing the passengers, mostly teenagers, to remain in their cabins caused outrage across South Korea and calls for harsh punishment. The court found all the remaining 13 surviving crew members guilty of various charges, including negligence, and handed down prison terms ranging from five to 20 years. Anger and grief gripped the nation after its worst maritime disaster in decades, and President Park Geun-hye's government was heavily criticised for what was seen as a botched rescue operation. Relatives of a victim of the Sewol ferry disaster react to news that the search for bodies will end at a gym on Jindo island, south-west of the South Korean mainland, where they have been staying since the April 16 disaster. Only 172 of the ferry's 476 passengers and crew were rescued. Of the 304 confirmed dead or still listed as missing, 250 were school children. Earlier in the day the government announced it was calling off a search for nine passengers still missing. The approach of the northern winter and the structural weakening of the vessel that has been under water for seven months in strong currents made it dangerous for divers to continue searching for those missing, Maritime Minister Lee Ju-young told a briefing. "I am sincerely sorry to announce the end of the search operation while not being able to keep my word to continue searching until the very last one is found," Mr Lee said. The decision to end the search was agreed by the families of the nine passengers still missing, who have kept a vigil on a southern island near the scene of the disaster, he added. Mr Lee said officials will discuss the issue of raising the vessel with families of the missing passengers.