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Back in August I commented on the curious case of the Arctic Sea, a 4,000-ton Maltese cargo ship, crewed by 15 Russians and hijacked the previous month by a group of eight Estonians, Latvians and Russians after it sailed from Finland with a cargo of timber on board worth £1.1 million bound for the Algerian port of Bejaia.
Though the ship was tracked continuously by maritime officials in Malta, Finland, Sweden, Russia and possibly other countries, the ship was allowed to continue its voyage to an unknown destination until, after part of a Russian naval fleet was sent to intercept it four weeks later, the hijackers gave themselves up on 17 August in international waters off the west African coast.
I wondered at the time what was so important about this ship that a group of men felt motivated to hijack it, and why the Russians paid so much attention to it when the navies of other countries could have intercepted it sooner. There was much speculation that the ship contained an arms shipment or an air defence system for Iran, though we will never know of course.
One small part of this puzzle has been answered, for a Moscow court has given one of the eight hijackers a five-year jail term for piracy. The man, an Estonian, pleaded guilty to the offence, as has one other man. He and the others have yet to be sentenced.
It still remains a curious case, the moreso since the navies of other countries appear not to have taken an interest in the ship. I wonder why?
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Back in August I commented on the curious case of the Arctic Sea, a 4,000-ton Maltese cargo ship, crewed by 15 Russians and hijacked the previous month by a group of eight Estonians, Latvians and Russians after it sailed from Finland with a cargo of timber on board worth £1.1 million bound for the Algerian port of Bejaia.
Though the ship was tracked continuously by maritime officials in Malta, Finland, Sweden, Russia and possibly other countries, the ship was allowed to continue its voyage to an unknown destination until, after part of a Russian naval fleet was sent to intercept it four weeks later, the hijackers gave themselves up on 17 August in international waters off the west African coast.
I wondered at the time what was so important about this ship that a group of men felt motivated to hijack it, and why the Russians paid so much attention to it when the navies of other countries could have intercepted it sooner. There was much speculation that the ship contained an arms shipment or an air defence system for Iran, though we will never know of course.
One small part of this puzzle has been answered, for a Moscow court has given one of the eight hijackers a five-year jail term for piracy. The man, an Estonian, pleaded guilty to the offence, as has one other man. He and the others have yet to be sentenced.
It still remains a curious case, the moreso since the navies of other countries appear not to have taken an interest in the ship. I wonder why?
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