The MV Arctic Sea is a merchant vessel

Merchant vessel

A merchant vessel is a ship that transports cargo or passengers. The closely related term commercial vessel is defined by the United States Coast Guard as any vessel engaged in commercial trade or that carries passengers for hire...

 cargo ship

Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

, formerly of Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 that was reported as missing between late July and mid August 2009 en route from Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 to Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

. On July 24, the Arctic Sea, manned by a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n crew and carrying a cargo of what was declared to consist solely of timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

, was allegedly boarded

Boarding (attack)

Boarding, in its simplest sense, refers to the insertion on to a ship's deck of individuals. However, when it is classified as an attack, in most contexts, it refers to the forcible insertion of personnel that are not members of the crew by another party without the consent of the captain or crew...

 by hijackers off the coast of Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. The incident was not immediately reported, and contact with the ship was apparently lost on, or after, July 30. The Arctic Sea did not arrive at its scheduled port in Algeria, and on August 14 the ship was located near Cape Verde

Cape Verde

The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...

 instead. On August 17 it was seized by the Russian Navy. An investigation into the incident is underway amidst speculation regarding the ship's actual cargo, allegations of cover-up by Russian authorities. The Arctic Sea was towed into harbor in the Maltese capital, Valletta

Valletta

Valletta is the capital of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta, and the historical city has a population of 6,098. The name "Valletta" is traditionally reserved for the historic walled citadel that serves as Malta's...

, on October 29, 2009.

The ship's hijacking and subsequent events remain mysterious as no credible explanation exists of its disappearance and Russia's conduct during and after capturing the ship. If confirmed to be an act of piracy, the hijacking of Arctic Sea would be the first known of its kind in Northern European waters for centuries.

Although by March 2011 all the hijackers had officially been found guilty of piracy, this has not led to – in the words of BBC correspondent Daniel Sandford

Daniel Sandford (journalist)

Daniel Sandford , is an English TV journalist. He is currently the BBC’s Moscow Correspondent.-Early life and education:Sandford was born in Oxford. His family moved to Ethiopia when he was 3 and he received his primary education there at the English School, which had been founded by his...

 – being "closer to knowing what actually happened".

Background

The Arctic Sea is presently owned by a US-based company, Arctic Runner Shipping Inc. and operated by a Canada-based company, Great Lakes Feeder Lines, as of March 2010. During the above incident, the vessel was owned by a Finnish company and operated by Solchart Management.

Boarding incident

The ship, manned by a Russian crew of 15 people, was carrying what was declared to be over $1.8 million worth of timber from Jakobstad

Jakobstad

Jakobstad is a town and municipality in Ostrobothnia, Finland. The town has a population of and covers a land area of . The population density is .- History :...

 , Finland, to Béjaïa

Béjaïa

Béjaïa, Vgaiet or Bejaya is a Mediterranean port city on the Gulf of Béjaïa in Algeria; it is the capital of Béjaïa Province, Kabylia. Under French rule, it was formerly known under various European names, such as Budschaja in German, Bugia in Italian, and Bougie...

, Algeria. The 6,700 cubic meters of sawn timber were sold by Rets Timber, a joint venture between Stora Enso Oyj

Stora Enso

Stora Enso Oyj is a Finnish pulp and paper manufacturer, formed by the merger of Swedish mining and forestry products company Stora and Finnish forestry products company Enso-Gutzeit Oy in 1998. It is headquartered in Helsinki, and it has approximately 29,000 employees...

 and UPM-Kymmene Oyj

UPM (company)

UPM-Kymmene Corporation is a Finnish pulp, paper and timber manufacturer. UPM-Kymmene was formed by the merger of Kymmene Corporation and Repola Ltd and its subsidiary United Paper Mills Ltd in 1996...

. The ship was between the islands of Öland

Öland

' is the second largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area of 1,342 km² and is located in the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Småland. The island has 25,000 inhabitants, but during Swedish Midsummer it is visited by up to 500,000 people...

 and Gotland

Gotland

Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...

, in the territorial waters

Territorial waters

Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most from the baseline of a coastal state...

 of Sweden, when it was allegedly boarded in the early hours of July 24, 2009, by a group of eight to ten English-speaking men, who approached on an inflatable boat, bearing the word polis (Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

 for police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

). According to the ship's owner, he learned from the captain that the intruders, claiming to be police officers, apprehended the crew, searched the ship and then left, leaving some crew members injured. The Swedish government said its police forces were not involved in boarding the vessel and launched an investigation.

However, reports after the discovery of the ship indicate that much of the information regarding the hijacking, including the report that the hijackers had left the ship on July 24, may have been given by crew under duress, or was deliberate misinformation by the authorities.

The actions were referred to as having nothing "in common with traditional acts of piracy or armed robbery at sea", a spokesman for the European Commission said.

Disappearance

The British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Maritime and Coastguard Agency

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is a UK executive agency working to prevent the loss of lives at sea and is responsible for implementing British and International maritime law and safety policy.This involves coordinating search and rescue at sea through Her Majesty's Coastguard , ensuring that...

 had the last known radio contact with the vessel as it was passing through the Strait of Dover

Strait of Dover

The Strait of Dover or Dover Strait is the strait at the narrowest part of the English Channel. The shortest distance across the strait is from the South Foreland, 6 kilometres northeast of Dover in the county of Kent, England, to Cap Gris Nez, a cape near to Calais in the French of...

 on July 28. Nothing extraordinary was detected during the communication, though authorities believe that the crew was coerced not to raise an alarm by the hijackers. The ship continued to send the Automatic Identification System

Automatic Identification System

The Automatic Identification System is an automatic tracking system used on ships and by Vessel traffic services for identifying and locating vessels by electronically exchanging data with other nearby ships and AIS Base stations...

 signals until July 30. A press-secretary of the Swedish Police Service

Swedish Police Service

The Swedish Police Service is a collection of Government agencies concerned with police matters in Sweden. The Swedish Police Service consists of 28,500 employees of which 39 per cent are women. The staff consists of 20,000 police officers of which 25 per cent are women and 8,500 civilian staff of...

 confirmed that one of its investigators had a phone contact with a crew member on July 31, but refused to disclose its nature. No communication occurred after that; the ship failed to come to Béjaïa on its scheduled arrival date, August 5. The coastal tracking radars last picked up the ship's signal near Brest

Brest, France

Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

; it was later reported being observed by a patrol aircraft near the Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 coast. The vessel was never seen passing through the Strait of Gibraltar

Strait of Gibraltar

The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Spain in Europe from Morocco in Africa. The name comes from Gibraltar, which in turn originates from the Arabic Jebel Tariq , albeit the Arab name for the Strait is Bab el-Zakat or...

. A hijack alert was issued by Interpol

Interpol

Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...

 on August 3.

The Russian Navy dispatched ships of its Black Sea Fleet

Black Sea Fleet

The Black Sea Fleet is a large operational-strategic sub-unit of the Russian Navy, operating in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea since the late 18th century. It is based in various harbors of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov....

 to search for the vessel; Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 also conducted a similar operation.

Discovery

On August 14 the ship was reportedly sighted off Cape Verde

Cape Verde

The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...

. The Russian ambassador to Cape Verde stated that a Russian frigate was heading to the area but that the detection had not been confirmed. Meanwhile an unnamed military official stated that the ship had indeed been found but that the location was being kept secret from the public for security reasons, without clarifying the statement further.

The Defense Minister of Russia, Anatoliy Serdyukov

Anatoliy Serdyukov

Anatoliy Eduardovich Serdyukov is a Russian politician and businessman.He has been the Defense Minister of Russia since February 15, 2007. He is known for launching major reforms in the Russian military....

, announced on August 17 that the ship had been found and seized off the Cape Verde Islands. All 15 crew members were said to be alive and well; they were transferred to the Ladnyy, a , for questioning. At that time no additional details were given. Dmitry Rogozin

Dmitry Rogozin

Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin is a well-known Russian diplomat and popular politician, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia. In January, 2008, he became Russia's ambassador to NATO. He was a leader of the Rodina party until it merged with other similar Russian parties to form the...

, Russia's ambassador to NATO mentioned to the press on August 17 that false information was deliberately supplied to the media in order to keep Russian plans secret.

After the ship's seizure the Malta Maritime Authority

Malta Maritime Authority

Malta Maritime Authority used to be an independent state corporation and government agency that is responsible for the governance, operation, regulation and promotion of the ports of the Mediterranean archipelago nation of Malta. Operation of the principal cargo port, Malta Freeport, is done in...

 stated that the security committee—composed of Maltese, Finnish and Swedish authorities—were aware of the ship's location at all times, but withheld the information to protect the crew.

Seizure and investigation

On August 15 the Finnish Police issued a statement about their investigation, in cooperation with Swedish and Maltese authorities, into "aggravated extortion and alleged hijacking". The police confirmed that a ransom had been demanded, but did not reveal any details, citing possible threats to life and safety. The ship's owners claimed that they had not received any ransom demands. The security chief of Russian insurance agency Renaissance Insurance Group told Russian newspapers on August 18 that their office was telephoned on August 3, and the caller claimed to be speaking on behalf of the hijackers, demanding €1.5 million or else the ship would be sunk and crew killed.

On August 18 the Russian defense minister stated that eight hijackers had been arrested. Names of the suspects were later released (on August 25). According to the Russian defense minister, one of the arrested men holds an Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

n passport, two Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n, and other two are Russian citizens. The Estonian Security Police reported on August 20 that six of the alleged hijackers were residents of Estonia  — one holding Estonian citizenship, two Russian citizens and three persons with undefined citizenship — and several of them were known to have a prior criminal background. Once it became known that most of the alleged hijackers were residents of Estonia, the country joined the international investigation group already consisting of Finland, Sweden, and Malta.

Ships sailing the high seas are generally under the jurisdiction of the flag state

Flag State

The flag state of a commercial vessel is the state under whose laws the vessel is registered or licensed.The flag state has the authority and responsibility to enforce regulations over vessels registered under its flag, including those relating to inspection, certification, and issuance of safety...

 (in case of the Arctic Sea, Malta). However, according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty, is the international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea , which took place from 1973 through 1982...

, piracy

Piracy

Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...

 is a universal jurisdiction

Universal jurisdiction

Universal jurisdiction or universality principle is a principle in public international law whereby states claim criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside the boundaries of the prosecuting state, regardless of nationality, country of residence, or any other...

 crime so that persons arrested for piracy while in international waters

International waters

The terms international waters or trans-boundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regional seas and estuaries, rivers, lakes, groundwater systems , and wetlands.Oceans,...

 are tried according to the laws of the arresting country, the latter being Russia in this case.

According to the Russian defense minister, the hijackers approached the ship on July 24 on an inflatable boat with a purported engine problem, and were thus taken aboard by the crew. The alleged hijackers denied that any hijacking attempt took place, claiming to be environmentalists who were picked up by the ship after their boat had run out of fuel. Eleven crew members (the captain and several others remained on the ship) were returned to Moscow and held in isolation as witnesses that, quoting Alexander Bastrykin

Alexander Bastrykin

Alexander Ivanovich Bastrykin is a Russian official, Former First Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia,and former Chairman of The Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office...

, First Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia

Prosecutor General of Russia

The Prosecutor General of Russia heads the system of official prosecution in courts known as the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russian Federation ....

, "need[ed] to be immediately interrogated." The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation was not supplied any information on why the crew was being held, and if they were suspected of any wrongdoing. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that, when captured by the Russian warship, the captain initially claimed that the ship was North Korea

North Korea

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

n, which was subsequently denied by Pyongyang

Pyongyang

Pyongyang is the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, and the largest city in the country. Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River and, according to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, has a population of 3,255,388. The city was...

. An attorney representing one of the alleged hijackers stated that it was the captain of the ship who prevented the men (purportedly stranded environmentalists) from disembarking the ship and who actually led her towards the western coast of Africa. Nine of the eleven detained crewmen returned home to Arkhangelsk on August 29; the remaining two ostensibly were released at a later date. In the meanwhile, the investigating authorities have placed a gag order

Gag order

A gag order is an order, sometimes a legal order by a court or government, other times a private order by an employer or other institution, restricting information or comment from being made public.Gag orders are often used against participants involved in a lawsuit or criminal trial...

 on the crew, with a penalty of up to 7 years in prison.

An initial search of the ship found no suspicious cargo, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Russian Foreign Minister

Foreign Minister of Russia

This is a list of foreign ministers of Tsardom of Russia, Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Russian Federation.-Heads of Posolsky Prikaz, 1549-1699:*Ivan Viskovatyi 1549-62*Andrey Vasilyev 1562-1570*Brothers Vasily and Andrey Shchelkalov 1570-1601...

 Sergey Lavrov

Sergey Lavrov

Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov is the Foreign Minister of Russia. Prior to that, Lavrov was a Soviet diplomat and Russia's ambassador to the United Nations from 1994 to 2004. Lavrov speaks Russian, English, French and Sinhala....

 made a statement on September 8, saying that nothing suspicious had been found on the Arctic Sea and that Maltese officials would be invited to take part in an inspection of the ship. The Times of Malta reported on September 11 that Maltese police officers and officials had been allowed to enter the ship.

Conclusion of vessel related events

On 29 October 2009 the Russian Navy finally delivered the Arctic Sea to Malta where after an inspection by Maltese authorities it was allowed to enter harbor and was returned to its owner. The four crewmen, including the vessel's master, who had remained with the vessel after its seizure by the Russian Navy off the Cape Verde Islands returned to Russia. Solchart Ltd. flew a new crew to Valetta where they remanned the vessel. Repairs were made during the week of 3 November and then the ship finally delivered its cargo of sawn lumber to Algeria.

On 2 November 2009 the master of the Arctic Sea and three crew members that had stayed with the vessel after it was seized by the Russian Navy and brought to Malta finally left the ship and returned home to Russia. A new crew was sent to man the vessel. On 11 November, after being repaired, re-certified, and re-provisioned the vessel left Valetta, Malta for its original port of call in Algeria to complete the delivery of Finnish lumber interrupted by the hijacking. The arrested alleged hijackers continue to be subjected to criminal procedures in Moscow.

Media coverage and speculation

Doubts have been raised by various sources regarding the Russian authorities' account of hijacking circumstances and events, as well as the nature of the ship's cargo. Unusual aspects of the hijacking of the Arctic Sea have been pointed out by the European Union Commission and the media. This has led to speculations on the nature of the operation.

A rapporteur on piracy for the Assembly of the Western European Union and former commander of the Estonian Defense Forces Tarmo Kõuts

Tarmo Kõuts

Tarmo Kõuts is an Estonian politician and former commander-in-chief of the Estonian Defence Forces....

 was quoted in the Estonian newspaper Postimees

Postimees

Postimees is an Estonian daily newspaper. It was established in 1 January 1857 by Johann Voldemar Jannsen and became Estonia's first daily newspaper in 1891....

 as saying, "Only the presence of cruise missiles on board the ship can explain Russia's strange behavior in this whole story." He noted that the size of the naval unit sent out after MV Arctic Sea was larger than that dispatched to deal with the Somalian piracy

Piracy in Somalia

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been a threat to international shipping since the second phase of the Somali Civil War in the early 21st century...

 crisis. According to a widely circulated theory, the ship was transporting anti-aircraft weapons and cruise missiles destined for Iran, and the "hijackers" were hired from gangsters by the Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i intelligence service Mossad

Mossad

The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....

 to prevent the cargo from reaching its destination. Referring to an earlier article in Russia's Komsomolskaya Pravda

Komsomolskaya Pravda

Komsomolskaya Pravda is a daily Russian tabloid newspaper, founded on March 13th, 1925. It is published by "Izdatelsky Dom Komsomolskaya Pravda" .- History :...

, The Independent

The Independent

The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

 reported that an unnamed general in the Russian Navy spoke of his suspicion that Russian organized crime

Russian Mafia

The Russian Mafia is a name applied to organized crime syndicates in Russia and Ukraine. The mafia in various countries take the name of the country, as for example the Ukrainian mafia....

 was illegally shipping S-300 or Kh-55

Raduga Kh-55

The Kh-55 is a Soviet/Russian air-launched cruise missile, designed by MKB Raduga. It has a range of up to and can carry conventional or nuclear warheads...

 missiles to Iran. A variation of the story suggested that the Russian government itself had staged the hijacking of the ship once it learned about an unsanctioned missile delivery to the Middle East. Specifically, Mossad was reported to have been tracking the shipment, and, as BBC News

BBC News

BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...

 reported, informed Russian authorities that the ship was transporting a "Russian air defence system for Iran." The S-300 missiles allegedly were loaded on board when the ship stopped in Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea...

.

Other speculations link the hijacking with Syria's aim to purchase MiG-31 jetfighters

Mikoyan MiG-31

The Mikoyan MiG-31 is a supersonic interceptor aircraft developed to replace the MiG-25 "Foxbat". The MiG-31 was designed by the Mikoyan design bureau based on the MiG-25.-Development:...

, which were actually officially ordered in 2007. The order has been suspended in May 2009 reportedly either due to Israeli pressure or lack of Syrian funds. However Russian media reported in September 2009, that Russia intends to deliver those jetfighters. This context raised speculations the Arctic Sea could have been carrying up to four MiG-31 hulls for Syria.

The nature of the cargo was initially questioned by Alexander Bastrykin, who leads Russian investigative team. He stated that he would "not rule out the possibility that [the Arctic Sea] might have been carrying not only timber." Claims that the ship was involved in illegal operations will be looked into, said Bastrykin.

On September 3, 2009, it was reported that Russian journalist Mikhail Voitenko had quit his job and fled Russia allegedly after receiving threats regarding his reporting. Before his flight, Mr. Voitenko was the editor-in-chief of the Sovfrakht Marine Bulletin, which first reported the Arctic Sea missing and questioned the official story released by Russian authorities. According to investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov

Andrei Soldatov

Andrei Soldatov is a Russian investigative journalist and Russian security services expert. He is a co-founders of the Agentura.Ru web site.-Journalism:...

, the threats to Voitenko may have come from an illegal arms trading ring.

Finnish authorities dismissed the possibility that the Arctic Sea was bearing a cargo of nuclear material. Jukka Laaksonen, head of the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority

Säteilyturvakeskus

Säteilyturvakeskus is the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, a government agency tasked with nuclear safety and radiation monitoring in Finland...

, said radiation tests had been conducted on the ship at a port in Finland before it began its voyage. He also dismissed as "stupid rumours" reports in British and Finnish newspapers that the ship could be carrying a nuclear cargo that could explain its disappearance and the purported hijacking. According to Laaksonen the radioactivity test in Finland took place without any reason: "Some fireman for some reason thought that there might be some radioactivity involved in this shipment and that was a very stupid idea. There was no basis for that," Laaksonen was quoted by AFP.

Dmitry Rogozin was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying, "Instead of speculating about the nature of the cargo carried on the Arctic Sea and inventing different types of tales ... important lessons should be drawn from this event. ... Instead of wagging their tongues in speculation, European officials should think about the need to tackle this threat of piracy." Sergey Lavrov stated that the Arctic Sea was not secretly carrying advanced Russian missiles, "As for the alleged presence of S-300 systems onboard the dry cargo carrier Arctic Sea, this is an absolute lie"; the Russian Prosecutor General's office also denied the presence of anything but timber aboard the ship. Critical of the idea of Iran-bound missiles aboard the Arctic Sea, Russian journalist Maxim Kononenko

Maxim Kononenko

Maksim Kononenko is a Russian journalist, writer, TV show host, and political activist, computer programmer. Known on the Internet as "Mr...

 pointed out that Russia has direct access to Iran through the Caspian Sea

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...

.
However the fact Russia deployed two Ilyushin Il-76

Ilyushin Il-76

The Ilyushin Il-76 is a multi-purpose four-engined strategic airlifter designed by Ilyushin design bureau. It was first planned as a commercial freighter in 1967. Intended as a replacement for the Antonov An-12, the Il-76 was designed for delivering heavy machinery to remote, poorly-serviced areas...

 transporter planes with a load capacity of at least 45 tons each to Sal International Airport (Cape Verde)

Amilcar Cabral International Airport

Amílcar Cabral International Airport , also known as Sal International Airport or Amílcar Cabral Airport, is the principal international airport of Cape Verde. The airport is named after the revolutionary leader Amílcar Cabral....

, prompts the question whether there was more payload than the 14 crew members and 8 suspects, which had to be taken home. Sal International Airport

Amilcar Cabral International Airport

Amílcar Cabral International Airport , also known as Sal International Airport or Amílcar Cabral Airport, is the principal international airport of Cape Verde. The airport is named after the revolutionary leader Amílcar Cabral....

 has a long history as strategic refueling location for Russian and former Soviet Bloc aircraft flying to and from Latin America and the Caribbean. Speculations say the vessel may had been under Russian control already in an early stage of the incident and rerouted intentionally to thinly populated Cape Verde, where the illegal payload could be secretly unloaded and be brought back to Russia with the local government's support.

The November 2010 United States diplomatic cables leak

United States diplomatic cables leak

The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began in February 2010 when WikiLeaks—a non-profit organization that publishes submissions from anonymous whistleblowers—began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates,...

 revived the discussion, when a senior Spanish prosecutor described "the strange case of the Arctic Sea ship in mid-2009 as 'a clear example' of arms trafficking."

Trial

As of 24 December 2010, six of the nine accused have pleaded guilty. One of them, Andrei Lunev, a Russian citizen, is believed to have made a plea bargain with the Russian prosecution service. He was tried with no contest and was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment on 7 May 2010. According to the Criminal Code of Russia such an offence is punishable by 5 to 10 years imprisonment however if an act of piracy was performed by an organised group, the maximum term is increased to 15 years.

Dmitry Savins, a citizen of Latvia who earlier pleaded guilty to Russian Prosecution Service, was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment on 11 June 2010. The Russian Prosecution service named Dmitry Savins as a leader of the hijack group. In his testimony, Savins identified an Estonian businessman Eerik-Niiles Kross — son of Jaan Kross

Jaan Kross

-Early life:Born in Tallinn, Estonia, studied Jacob Westholm´s Grammar school, Kross attended the University of Tartu and graduated from its School of Law...

 — as a mastermind of the operation. Some media reports identify him as a former chief of the Estonian intelligence service. A German and an Israeli businessmen were named as related to the crime as well, however no evidence has yet been disclosed.

On December 3, 2010, Russian court sentenced Sergei Demchenko, a Latvian businessman, to three years of imprisonment. He earlier made a plea bargain with Russian Prosecution Service so the trial was with no contest. Amongst those publicly known to be arrested in relation to the hijack, Demchenko appears to be the only person who was not a member of the boarding group. Circumstances around Demchenko's trial are rather vague. Even the fact that he had been in fact arrested was first reported by media on 1 December, and as of 3 December 2010 it remains unknown when and where Russian police detained him.

One of the six remaining accused requested a jury trial. This move lead to some interesting legal complications. All the remaining accused would now have to be tried by jury as a group. The case was assigned to Arkhangelsk Oblast Court (Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...

is a place of residence for Arctic Sea crew) and the preliminary hearing was due to take place on 16 December 2010. As well, according to Russian law, earlier testimonies given by Savins et al. as part of a plea bargain are not admissible in jury trial.

During the preliminary hearing it was revealed that the accused who had chosen a jury trial had apparently changed his mind ; therefore the outcome of the case would be decided by judges alone. On March 24, 2011, the court returned its verdict on the remaining accused and "the men - a Russian, a Latvian and an Estonian, as well as three others described as stateless - were given sentences ranging from 7 to 12 years."