사회적참사특조위 "해군•경, 세월호 CCTV조작 정황"
An independent panel looking into the 2014 Sewol-ho ferry sinking says authorities could have tampered with the surveillance footage retrieved from the ship.
The panel says this may have impeded with an on-going investigation looking into the main cause of the tragedy.
Kim Ji-yeon reports.
The Special Investigation Commission on Social Disasters said on Thursday that the digital recording of CCTV cameras the Korean Navy argued it had collected from the Sewol-ho ferry's information desk on June 22, 2014... was different from the one it had handed over to state prosecutors.
The Commission argues the footage restored by prosecutors in August 2014... contained recordings up to 8:46 AM of April 16... three minutes before the disaster broke out.
The commission also raised suspicions of why the Korean Coast Guard have collected the footage two months after the sinking... and added that some of the survivors testified that they remember seeing the footage extending to 9:30 AM on the day of the disaster.
The commission voiced its suspicions that the Coast Guard retrieved the footage early on to have it doctored in order to conceal something from the public... and pretended to have pulled it from the site two months later.
The commission also said they've found no trace of any connectors from digital storage devices... casting doubts over a Navy officer's statement on June 22 on how they've retrieved the recording from the storage site.
The Navy said it believes it's not appropriate to respond directly to the commission's claims... but denied the allegations saying it had handed over all collected evidence from the site to the Coast Guard under proper procedures.
The Coast Guard have not yet responded to the allegations.
Meanwhile, the group representing families of the Sewol-ho ferry victims urged an immediate launch of a reinvestigation into the sinking probe.
In October 2014, a joint investigation team of prosecutors and police cited that the sinking was caused by a combination of cargo overloading, an illegal redesign of the ship and the steersman's poor helmsmanship.
The Special Investigation Commission on Social Disasters has legal authority in the Sewol-ho ferry probe... set up after being approved by the National Assembly last year... to find the main cause of the ferry sinking... as well as prove that the first responders had done all they could to save the ferry passengers.
Among 476 passengers on board the Sewol-ho ferry,... only 172 people survived the tragedy.
Kim Ji-yeon, Arirang News.
