ST.-PETERSBURG, August 23 - RAPSI. The St. Petersburg Submariners Club has started collecting signatures to supplement an open letter to the government in defense of Nerpa submarine commander Dmitry Lavrentyev and pilot Dmitry Grobov, who are accused of having negligently caused a major submarine accident in 2008, the club board chairman Igor Kudrin told RIA Novosti.

On Nov. 8, 2008, the Akula-II class nuclear attack submarine was running sea trials in the Sea of Japan in the western Pacific when its freon-based fire extinguishing system malfunctioned, killing 20 of the 208 people on board and injuring 21.

Captain Dmitry Lavrentyev was charged with abuse of power and engineer Dmitry Grobov was accused of negligently causing death. The jury acquitted both men on Sep. 14, 2011. The Supreme Court's military board overturned the verdict in May 2012 and ordered a retrial.

"The collection of signatures will keep going for quite some time. Anyone who disagrees with the official story of the tragedy may put their name on the petition," Kudrin said.

The petition has been posted on the club's website. It was written by author Alexander Pokrovsky who served on the submarine fleet for many years.