HONG KONG — The captain of a Hong Kong commuter ferry that collided with another boat in 2012, killing 39 people, was found guilty of manslaughter on Saturday, local media reported.
A nine-member jury also found Lai Sai-ming guilty of endangering the safety of others at sea, in what was Hong Kong’s biggest maritime tragedy in decades, the South China Morning Post newspaper and Radio Television Hong Kong said.
The same jury found the captain of the other, smaller boat, Chow Chi-wai, innocent of manslaughter but guilty of endangering the safety of others at sea. All of those killed, including eight children, and most of the nearly 100 injured in the collision were aboard his boat.
The two captains had blamed each other for the Oct. 1, 2012, collision, which left this highly organized and overwhelmingly safe southern Chinese city traumatized.
The verdicts came down after a 60-day trial and four days of deliberations.
The manslaughter charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; endangering safety at sea carries a maximum of four years and a fine of $25,000.
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