Vietnamese sailors detained for murder

Kwang Hyun 803, a Korean fishing vessel whose Korean captain and chief engineer were allegedly killed by two Vietnamese crewmen, arrives at Port of Victoria, Seychelles, Thursday. The Korea Coast Guard officers took the suspects into custody and are transporting them to Korea. / Yonhap

By Kim Rahn

Korea Coast Guard officers have taken into custody two Vietnamese crewmen who allegedly killed the Korean captain and chief engineer of a fishing boat.

The detention was made at Port of Victoria in Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, Thursday night, as the Korean vessel arrived there four days after the alleged killings.

The coast guard officers are now bringing the suspects to Korea.

According to the coast guard, seven of its officers boarded the vessel, Kwang Hyun 803, with local police when a pilot was boarding around 10:10 p.m. local time. The coast guard gained control of the ship and had the vessel steered to the pier.

The surprise boarding was aimed at preventing the suspects from attempting to escape, the coast guard said, adding that all other crew members were safe.

The two Vietnamese sailors did not resist when officers detained them, the coast guard said.

Four of the officers left the island country with the suspects, taking them to Korea on planes via United Arab Emirates. They are expected to arrive at Incheon International Airport on Saturday afternoon and be taken to the coast guard’s investigation base in Busan.

“We concluded it would be better to bring them to Korea as soon as possible and investigate them here than to confine them in a cabin and question them there,” a coast guard official said.

The other three officers checked the health of the crew and have been questioning them about the circumstances of the incident.

A Korean navigator, surnamed Lee, earlier told the coast guard that the Vietnamese sailors stabbed the captain and the chief engineer after the crew had shared two bottles of liquor provided by the captain as a present for their hard work. The officers are examining how the drinking session took place and whether the alleged murderers had an accomplice.

Lee was sent to a local hospital because he sustained a minor injury while disarming the assailants.

The coast guard officers also conducted postmortem examinations on the victims and examined the crime scene on the vessel. The vessel operator, Kwangdong Shipping, will bring the bodies back to Korea soon.

The incident happened early Monday when the two Vietnamese crewmen, both 32, allegedly stabbed the captain, Yang, 43, and the engineer, Kang, 42.

Lee said the alleged assailants were usually hardworking and obedient, and the coast guard suspects the killings were impulsive.

Since the incident, Lee, the only remaining Korean of the 18-member crew, has been the acting captain and led the vessel to the Port of Victoria, 640 miles from where the incident occurred. Eight Indonesians and seven Vietnamese made up the rest of the crew.