CORRECTS TO PRETRIAL HEARING INSTEAD OF TRIAL - Family members of passengers aboard the sunken ferry Sewol struggle with a security officer, right, while attempting to attend a pretrial hearing of the... (Associated Press) 
 
 GWANGJU, South Korea (AP) — Hostile spectators cursing, shouting and weeping behind them, 15 crew members from the sunken South Korean ferry appeared in court Tuesday to enter pleas on charges of negligence and failing to save more than 300 dead or missing passengers. 
 
 As the crew members stood with bowed heads before three Gwangju District Court judges, families of the victims struggled to contain their fury. Many wore yellow ribbons in memory of those killed in the April 16 accident, most of whom were students on a school trip. The crowd erupted when one crew member appeared to smile, and a judge asked the defendants to show respect. The judges also asked the crowd to be quiet. 
 
 "Everybody should be sentenced to death," one spectator said. One crew member wept so hard she couldn't identify herself to the judges. 
 
 Because of time constraints Tuesday, only 11 of the 15 entered pleas of not guilty. The remaining four are scheduled to appear at a hearing in one week. 
 
 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. Several of the defendants acknowledged some responsibility at Tuesday's hearing but denied that they caused the sinking, saying they had little control over the stability of the ferry, which was overloaded with cargo. 
 
 After expressing his condolences to the victims' families, Judge Lim Joung-youb emphasized the rights of the defendants to make their own arguments. 
 
 The pervading public hostility against the crew has raised questions about the fairness of the trial. They are being defended by six state-appointed lawyers, three of whom started practicing law only this year. The court said in a statement that it will guarantee the rights of both the defendants and the victims. 
 
 Capt. Lee Joon-seok and three other crew members are charged with homicide — a charge that could carry the death penalty, though South Korea has not executed anyone since late 1997. Prosecutors accuse them of tacitly colluding to abandon the ship while being aware that the passengers would be trapped and killed when the ship sank. 
 
 Lawyers of crew members denied there was collusion, saying the sailors were confused, some were injured and some panicked. They also said that most of these crew members were not in a position to act independently without orders from the captain or first mates. 
 
 Crew members also denied that their actions caused the sinking. The captain and the first mate denied they were responsible for the overloading of cargo or improper stowage of cargo, because the cargo was overseen by the employer, Chonghaejin Marine Co. 
 
 The captain's lawyer, Lee Kwang-jae, said the factors that caused the sinking couldn't be controlled by a captain who operated the ferry only six days a month as a contract worker. 
 
 The captain was the subject of fury and anger when video footage of him escaping in black underpants was released. But his lawyer denied that he fled, saying the coast guard rescued him. The captain tried to correct the ferry's balance and asked people to wear life vests, even though he was injured, according to his lawyer. 
 
 The lawyer said that Park Han-gyeol, the third mate on duty, suffered a panic attack during the sinking and sat and wept in a corner on the bridge. 
 
 Some accounts of the sinking given in court have conflicted with what prosecutors told the public. 
 
 Most lawyers said crew members did some measures to rescue passengers, citing examples of going back to the ferry to break its windows, rescuing passengers and conducting CPR. 
 
 Also for the first time, one sailor said he relayed the evacuation order to a cabin crew. Seo Chung-won, lawyer of Kim Young-ho, a second mate who communicated with a vessel traffic services official during the sinking, said Kim sent an evacuation order to Yang Dae-hong, the chief officer in the cabin area. Yang, who sent out announcements to the rest of the ship, died. Survivors said they heard no evacuation orders and prosecutors argued a timely evacuation order could have saved more lives. 
 
 The first court hearings have shown that determining who is responsible for the sinking and the botched rescue process will not be easy. Coast guard personnel are being investigated over whether their rescue measures were appropriate, and court hearings will begin later this month for Chonghaejin executives accused of overloading cargo. 
 
 In a statement, a committee of ferry victims' families demanded strict punishment of the crew. 
 
 "They say wounds heal as time goes by, but, for us, it's like time has stopped," the statement said. "The defendants, who should have saved the passengers first, ran out first and lived.... The defendants not only killed the passengers, they also killed the souls of the families and basic trust in our society." 
 
 Nearly two months after the sinking, 292 bodies have been recovered and 12 people are still missing. Divers continue underwater searches for those believed trapped inside the sunken ship off the country's southwestern coast. 
 
 Since the sinking, President Park Geun-hye has pushed to restructure government agencies and reshuffle top officials to try to restore public confidence damaged since the ferry sinking. 
 
 On Tuesday, Park nominated a former senior journalist to replace the outgoing prime minister, who resigned to take responsibility for the government's handling of the sinking. Park's first choice for the job resigned amid allegations of ethical lapses. 
 
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 AP writers Hyung-jin Kim and Jung-yoon Choi contributed to this report from Seoul. ||||| GWANGJU South Korea Fifteen crew of a South Korean ferry that sank in April killing more than 300 people, most of them children, went on trial on Tuesday on charges ranging from negligence to homicide, with the shout going up of "murderer" as the captain entered the court. 
 
 Captain Lee Joon-seok, 68, and three senior crew members were charged with homicide, facing a maximum sentence of death. Two were charged with fleeing and abandoning ship that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Nine were charged with negligence, which can also carry jail terms. 
 
 Emotions ran high in court as family members appeared to have already convicted the crew who were caught on video abandoning ship, the captain in his underwear, while the children, obeying orders, waited in their cabins for further instructions. 
 
 As the defendants were led in, someone in the packed courtroom shouted: "That guy is the captain, isn't he? Murderer!" 
 
 One relative held up a sign that read: "You are not human. You are beneath animals." An altercation broke out between relatives and security guards who tried to take the sign away. 
 
 The Sewol, overloaded and travelling too fast on a turn, sank off the southwest coast on April 16 on a routine journey from Incheon on the mainland to the southern holiday island of Jeju. 
 
 Of the 476 passengers and crew on board, 339 were children and teachers from the same school on the outskirts of Seoul. Only 172 people were rescued and the remainder are all presumed to have drowned. 
 
 Mourning family members packed the court in Gwangju, the closest city to the scene of the disaster, as the 15 were led in and seated on two rows of benches. 
 
 The 15 have been in detention since they were charged in May. 
 
 A family member spoke on behalf of others at the start of the hearing, imploring the defendants to tell the truth. 
 
 "Would you have done the same if these were your children? Please imagine for a moment that they were your children who died and tell the truth." 
 
 The lawyer for the captain, in an opening statement, said his client had no power to stop the ferry company's practice of overloading the vessel with cargo. 
 
 The lawyer, Lee Kwang-jae, also said the captain had not meant to cause the accident, and there were therefore no grounds for the homicide charge. 
 
 "It wasn't like he had a grudge against the children so it's difficult to accept the prosecution's argument that he wilfully neglected the duty of rescue and escaped to save himself," Lee told the court. 
 
 The sound of sobbing was heard throughout the courtroom as the state presented its case and the head prosecutor's voice broke when he recounted the last moments of some of the children. 
 
 "I DON'T KNOW WHY THIS IS HAPPENING" 
 
 One child was caught on video, recovered later, staring death in the face, the prosecutor said. 
 
 "I'm not a criminal, I don't know why this is happening," the child was quoted as saying. "I haven't done anything that bad." 
 
 The court suspended the hearing and set the next court appearance for next Tuesday. 
 
 About 20 relatives stood outside the court waiting for the defendants' bus to appear. Park Eun-hee, the mother of a girl who died on the ferry, denounced the crew's earlier defence that they had panicked. 
 
 "We mothers say this. The crew claimed that they had panic disorder so they didn't know what to do or couldn't save the passengers," she said sobbing. "But during that time, our children were crying as they called their parents and said they were scared." 
 
 A Gwangju judge who handles media affairs, Hahn Jee-hyung, said the defendants were unlikely to get a concerted defence in the highly publicised case. 
 
 "They were appointed by the court, so we hope there is no criticism of them," Hahn told reporters before the hearing. A panel of three judges presided over the first day of the trial, as the state called for justice to be served and the seven defence lawyers presented their case. 
 
 The captain and one senior crew member had written to the court pleading leniency, court documents show, but details were not available. 
 
 Authorities are still searching for Yoo Byung-un, head of the family that owned the operator of the doomed ferry, on charges of embezzlement seen as a key factor that led to compromised safety management. 
 
 Police have arrested executives of the ferry operator and subsidiaries of the investment firm held by Yoo's family but they have yet to go on trial. The coastguard, which is set to be broken up, is also facing investigation for suspected negligence in the course of the rescue operation. 
 
 President Park Geun-hye, who days after the disaster said the actions of some of the crew were tantamount to murder, nominated a former journalist as her choice to be the new prime minister to replace the incumbent who resigned over the government's slow and ineffective response to the disaster. 
 
 Moon Chang-geuk was expected to take charge of overhauling bureaucracy and reforming safety standards as pledged by Park. 
 
 A lawyer appearing for the one of the crew in hearings held earlier behind closed doors confessed to being torn between professional obligation and the resignation that lawyers could not make any difference amid a nationwide witch hunt. 
 
 "It is a burden for every lawyer, because the crime is something that can hardly be forgiven," he said in the small coastal town of Mokpo last month. 
 
 "It's not just that one person died. There were hundreds. All I could say to the judges is 'we will await your wise decision'. That was it." 
 
 (Editing by Jack Kim and Nick Macfie)
– Grief-wracked family members of the 300-plus souls lost in the sinking of the South Korean ferry Sewol today aimed their rage squarely at the 15 crewmembers accused of negligence, as the reeling country held a pre-trial hearing in the April 16 disaster. The AP describes "hostile spectators" who cried, cursed, and shouted as the crew entered court, while Reuters notes that shouts of "murderer" rang out as the ferry's captain, Lee Joon-seok, passed by. "Everybody should be sentenced to death," said one crowd member. Eleven of the 15 pleaded not guilty; the rest will enter pleas in a week. Crew members, many of whom wore yellow ribbons in honor of the dead, have said that they panicked as the boat was sinking, "so they didn't know what to do or couldn't save the passengers," said one sobbing mom. "But during that time, our children were crying as they called their parents and said they were scared." One crew member was crying so hysterically that the AP notes she couldn't give her name to the judges. But any remorse isn't exactly assuaging a vengeful public, to such an extent that many worry the crew can't get a fair trial. "It is a burden for every lawyer, because the crime is something that can hardly be forgiven," says a lawyer representing one of the 15.