ROME, May 22 (RAPSI) - Francesco Schettino, the captain who crashed the Costa Concordia liner, will stand trial on July 9, according to a decision taken by Judge Pietro Molino who presided over the preliminary hearing in Grosseto.

Schettino, who is facing up to 15 years in prison, will be the only defendant at the trial, TMNews reports on Wednesday.

The Costa Concordia sank off the coast of Giglio near Tuscany in Italy on the evening of January 13 last year, resulting in the death of 32 people and injuring hundreds of the 4,200 passengers and crew on board. Two people are still reported as missing.

The prosecutor's office of Grosseto, the town closest to the site of the tragedy, charged Schettino with involuntary manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning ship before all the passengers were evacuated.

Five other people were facing charges in the case, including the ship's first officer Ciro Ambrosino, third officer Silvia Coronica, helmsman Jacob Rusli Bin, and cabin service director Manrico Giampedroni, as well as Roberto Ferrarini, the head of ship owner Costa Crociere's crisis unit.

The preliminary hearing began in Grosseto in April. The six suspects' attorneys requested that their clients be allowed to make a plea bargain. The prosecutors granted the requests of five of the suspects. Schettino's request was denied.