Prosecutors demanded capital punishment for the captain of the Sewol ferry, which sank in South Korean waters leaving more than 300 people killed or missing a year ago, during an appeals trial on Tuesday.
The captain, Lee Jun-seok, and 14 other crew members of the ferry were accused of abandoning the ferry and the 476 people on board in the early hours of the ship sinking off South Korea's southwest coast on April 16.
Prosecutors had sought a death penalty for the captain and life imprisonment for three crew members in charge of steering the ship and jail terms ranging from 15 to 30 years for 11 other crew members.
But a district court sentenced Lee to 36 years in jail, clearing him of manslaughter and other major charges in November.
The 14 others were given jail terms ranging from five to 30 years, while the ferry's operator Chonghaejin Corp. was fined 10 million won ($9,161). They all appealed the rulings.
During the final hearing on the appeals trial Tuesday, prosecutors demanded the same sentences that they sought in the original trial be handed down.
"The captain and other crew members' nonfeasance should be treated as the same as implementation of manslaughter," a prosecutor in charge of the case said during the hearing at the Gwangju High Court in this city some 329 kilometers south of Seoul.
"They were able to move in the ship, easily give orders to passengers to be ready to leave or immediately leave the ship using broadcasting devices, phones, emergency bells or wireless sets," the prosecutor said. "But they did nothing while passengers were also ardently waiting for an order to abandon the ship."
"I have sinned greatly. I'll reflect on myself and apologize till my dying day," Lee said in his final statement of the trial.
"I, particularly, bow down and apologize to the bereaved families of the students of Danwon High School killed in the sinking," he said.
The ferry sinking left 295 people dead and nine others unaccounted for, with most of the victims students of the Danwon High on a field trip to the southern resort island of Jeju.
The sentencing is scheduled for April 28. (Yonhap)
