The prosecution is scheduled to unveil its criminal action against 15 crew members of the capsized ferry Sewol on Monday.

A key issue is whether the prosecution will seek capital punishment for the ferry’s caption Lee Joon-seok, 69, during the trial at the Gwangju District Court. He has been charged with homicide through willful negligence.

Apart from the possibility of a death penalty, the prosecution could choose to call for life imprisonment for the indicted Sewol captain.

On April 16, Lee and other crew members escaped from the sinking vessel, reportedly without taking any appropriate measures to evacuate passengers. Investigators had vowed to prove the charges that the sailors’ practices were intentional and that their behavior caused the deaths of those on board.

Some families of the victims have recently asked the prosecution to seek the maximum sentence (or death penalty) allowed by law for Lee.

Aside from Lee, three other crewmen were indicted in May on charges of manslaughter due to willful negligence.

While 11 other crewmen were also indicted for neglecting their duties during the accident, which left more than 300 people dead or missing, prosecutors only lodged homicide charges against the four key suspects: Lee and the three crewmen.

If the crewmen had taken steps to evacuate the passengers, they may have been able to save all of them or at least minimized the death toll, a prosecutor said during the former trial hearing.

He said that “students (on a school excursion) in cabins on the fourth floor could have escaped just by walking several meters. But they became trapped due to an announcement by senior crewmen to stay in their cabins.”

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)