Court hearing about sinking K-159 submarine

Hearing of the criminal case on K-159 atomic submarine which sank in the Barents Sea in August 2003, took place on board of “Petr Veliky” (Peter the Great) missile cruiser.
K-159 was towed to town Polyarny for scrapping. The sub nuclear reactor was put in the safe state, and there were no weapons in the submarine. The towing started on August 28, 2003 with the use of four pontoons. On August 30 at 4:00 Msk the pontoons broke off the submarine in the storm. 9 of the submarine crew died, only one crew member survived.

The participants of the legal proceedings had to visit the cruiser to hear the recording of the talks between the submarine crew and the naval base on the radio.

Interrogation of the witnesses was finished in the previous court sessions. There are 70 witnesses for this criminal case, including Navy Commander, Admiral Vladimir Kuroedov, retired Admiral Igor Kasatonov and the only member of the submarine crew who survived the accident – Maxim Tsibulsky. Recently the court has started interrogating the experts who conducted investigation on the submarine sinking. Ten experts will undergo interrogation, RIA-Novosti reported.

In the daytime there was a short break in the legal hearing because defendant Admiral Gennady Suchkov ailed. After the admiral received medical treatment, the hearing continued. Earlier there was a two-week break in the legal proceedings when Admiral Suchkov was sick.

Source: PRAVDA.RU
             Izvestia