Former commander is convicted of sinking Argentine submarine that imploded at sea and killed 44 crew members

The federal court in the province of Santa Cruz found Villamide guilty of negligence and failure to fulfill the duties of a public official, while three other naval commanders were acquitted. The court unanimously convicted the 62-year-old former commander and former head of the Navy's submarine division, and imposed a three-year conditional sentence on him that, in principle, avoids his imprisonment. The sentence imposed by the court does not represent the effective imprisonment of the former naval commander, who must inform his address and present himself to justice for the duration of his sentence. Former captains Luis Enrique López Mazzeo, Héctor Aníbal Alonso and Hugo Correa were acquitted — the only ones, along with Villamide, who were put on trial in a process that included a hundred witnesses. 'Insufficient' punishment "The family members will appeal the acquittals and demand more severe sentences," said the plaintiffs' lawyer Valeria Carreras, representing the majority of the victims' relatives, who considered the court's punishment "insufficient." Appeals will be filed after the court releases the grounds for the sentence on August 21. "The objective will be to review both the acquittals and the amount of the sentence imposed on Villamide," explained Carreras. Despite everything, the lawyer highlighted the sentence. "It is important to have been able to prove Villamide's guilt. There were 44 preventable deaths and it is a message to the Armed Forces and the State to take care of the nation's servants," he added. In any case, she admitted "some disappointment" with the acquittals of the other defendants. The Public Prosecutor's Office maintained that Villamide did not take into account "the poor readiness conditions" of the submarine and that was why he had asked for a sentence of five years in prison. The action, which represents the families of the victims, 43 men and one woman, had requested prison sentences for the four defendants. Image shows part of the wreckage of the ARA San Juan submarine found at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean Argentine Navy/AFP Investigations inconclusive The causes of the sinking remain unclear. The submarine reported a breakdown and a fire caused by a short circuit in the battery room. On November 15, 2017, it submerged below 100 meters of water and imploded. An international operation participated in the search for the vessel when there was still hope of finding its crew alive after the Argentine Navy announced that the submarine had suffered a "communications failure". However, the wreckage of the submarine was found a year later 500 km off the Argentine coast and around 900 meters deep in the South Atlantic, without ever being rescued.