VLADIVOSTOK, March 11 - RAPSI. The Vladivostok court, which is holding a retrial process of the 2008 deadly accident on the nuclear submarine Nerpa, has announced a recession until March 18 after hearing the prosecution's arguments, defense counsel Sergei Bondar told RIA Novosti on Monday.

On November 8, 2008, the Akula-II class nuclear attack submarine Nerpa was running sea trials in the Sea of Japan in the western Pacific when its freon-based fire extinguishing system was activated. Freon suppresses fires quickly by displacing the oxygen in the air. Of the 208 people on board, 20 were killed and 21 were injured.

Captain Dmitry Lavrentyev was charged with abuse of power and engineer Dmitry Grobov was accused of causing death by negligence. The jury acquitted both on September 14, 2011, but the Supreme Court's military board overturned the verdict in May 2012. The military board also demanded a retrial.

"The prosecution has presented its arguments, which do not say anything new. Moreover, some of the arguments contradict the initial statements made. Hence they are unlikely to convince the court to change the verdict," Sergei Bondar said.

The court announced a recession until March 18 after hearing the prosecution's arguments because one of the jury members cannot be present in the court again before that date. "If there are no procedural penalties, the court will most likely uphold the verdict in April," the defense attorney said.