Eight suspects held for Arctic Sea hijacking

Eight suspects in the hijacking of the Arctic Sea freighter are reported to have been detained.

The Russian navy today arrested eight men accused of hijacking the Arctic Sea freighter and forcing the crew to sail to West Africa.

Defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov said the suspected hijackers were detained by the naval vessel that found the Russian-crewed freighter yesterday off Cape Verde, thousands of miles from the Algerian port where it was supposed to dock two weeks ago.

The suspected hijackers – from Estonia, Latvia and Russia – were arrested without a shot being fired.

There was still no information on why they seized the Arctic Sea, an 18-year-old ship with a cargo of timber worth just over £1m (€1.16m).

The 15 crew members were safe and had been taken aboard the Russian naval vessel for questioning.

The Arctic Sea sailed from the Finnish port of Pietarsaari on July 21. On July 30, Swedish police said the ship’s owner had reported that the crew claimed the vessel was boarded by masked men on July 24 near the Swedish island of Gotland. The invaders reportedly had tied up the crew, beat them, claimed they were looking for drugs, then sped off about 12 hours later in an inflatable craft.

Mr Serdyukov said the hijackers boarded the freighter under the pretext that there was a problem with their inflatable craft. The hijackers, who were armed, then forced the crew to change course and turned off the Arctic Sea’s navigation equipment.

By the time the Swedish report of the attack had emerged, the ship had already passed through the English Channel, where it made its last known radio contact on July 28. Signals from its tracking device were picked up off France’s coast the next day, but that was the last known trace of it until yesterday.