Vietnamese murder suspects arrive in S. Korea

SEOUL, June 30 (Yonhap) — Two Vietnamese fishermen accused of murdering two South Koreans aboard a vessel in the Indian Ocean were brought to South Korea Thursday to face trial, the foreign ministry said.

The suspects, both aged 32, are accused of killing the 43-year-old captain and 42-year-old engineer of the deep-sea fishing vessel Kwang Hyun 803 in waters near Seychelles on June 20.

The suspects declined to answer any questions in regards to their alleged crime.

They arrived at Incheon International Airport later under the escort of Coast Guard officers.

“After holding active diplomatic negotiations with the relevant countries for the suspects’ transfer, the foreign ministry secured the cooperation of the Indian government to bring them to South Korea via the Mumbai airport and won approval from the related airlines for their boarding,” it said.

The suspects left Seychelles on Tuesday and stopped in Mumbai en route to South Korea as there are no direct flights between the island nation and Incheon.

“My brother’s body was in a miserable condition, and such a thing cannot be done by a human,” a family member of one of the victims said. “I cannot forgive the killers. Even investigators told me I don’t have to look at the body as it was damaged badly.”

South Korea’s foreign ministry has been making diplomatic efforts to bring the suspects from Seychelles as the accident broke out on international waters where typical extradition rules do not apply.

The investigators said they will continue to look into the reason behind the murder, as well as determine what other crew members were doing when the crime took place.

Two Vietnamese suspects accused of killing the 43-year-old captain and 42-year-old engineer of the deep-sea fishing vessel Kwang Hyun 803 in waters near Seychelles on June 20 are brought into South Korea on June 30, 2016 via Incheon International Airport. (Yonhap)