A court in Santa Cruz, Argentina, has announced its verdict in the criminal case regarding the loss of the Argentine Navy submarine ARA San Juan in 2017.
According to sea-news.az that Claudio Villamide, the former commander of the Submarine Force, has been sentenced to a three-year suspended prison term.
The judges found Villamide guilty of “dereliction of duty by a public official” and determined that his actions resulted in a catastrophe that “negligently caused the deaths of individuals.” Meanwhile, the court acquitted former Navy Chief Luis Enrique López Mazzeo, former Submarine Force Chief of Staff Héctor Alonso, and former Head of Operations Hugo Correa.
The prosecution had alleged that the naval leadership was aware of crew complaints regarding technical malfunctions prior to the submarines final voyage. The ARA San Juan, a diesel-electric submarine with a crew of 44, departed from Ushuaia on November 8, 2017, and lost contact on November 15 while en route to its base in Mar del Plata.
According to reports, on the day the submarine went missing, the crew informed command that water had entered the battery compartment, which triggered a short circuit and a fire. In November 2018, the American company “Ocean Infinity,” contracted by the Argentine government to conduct the search, discovered the wreckage 597 kilometers from Comodoro Rivadavia at a depth of 907 meters.
