Sub sinking: Admiral convicted

2004-05-18 11:17

Moscow - A Russian military court on Tuesday convicted a top admiral of negligence in the fatal sinking of a mothballed nuclear submarine, and gave him a suspended four-year prison sentence.

Adm. Gennady Suchkov had pleaded innocent to the charges during the hearings at the Northern Fleet Military Court in Severomorsk. Prosecutors asked for a four-year prison sentence for Suchkov, while relatives of the seamen who were killed demanded tougher punishment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended Suchkov from his post as the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet chief shortly after last August's sinking of the K-159 submarine as it was being towed to a scrapyard. Nine of the 10 crew on board died when a howling storm ripped the pontoons from the submarine in the Barents Sea.

The Russian navy commander, Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, has said Northern Fleet commanders disregarded safety rules when they authorised the towing of the submarine despite a bad weather forecast. He also said that the tugboat had moved faster than allowed by official regulations.

Even after the storm ripped off some of the pontoons and the submarine tilted onto its stern, Northern Fleet commanders did not move to evacuate the crew from the submarine, Kuroyedov said.

The catastrophe further eroded the Russian navy's prestige, already badly dented by the August 2000 sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine, which killed the entire 118-man crew.

Many Russian commentators blamed Kuroyedov for both submarine disasters, saying he has failed to improve the navy's degrading condition. Some expected Putin to fire Kuroyedov, but he has managed to cling to the job.

- AP