The victims, mostly women and children, drowned when the overloaded boat sank in central Quang Binh's Gianh river while taking them to a market on Lunar New Year's Eve in late January.

More than 80 people, several bicycles and a cow were on the boat, which was licensed to carry only 20 people, an official and local media said previously.

The captain was sentenced to 15 years in jail and the boat owner to 14 years after a two-day trial that ended Friday, the Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan (People's Daily) said.

The trial attracted hundreds of family members of victims as well as local residents, it said.

Several asked the court to give the accused light sentences and demanded that local officials be prosecuted for allowing the unsafe boat to operate, the report said.

Agence France Presse - August 29, 2009