Thread: Eight arrested in freighter hijacking, (3 no citizenship ?)

Eight arrested in freighter hijacking

MOSCOW — A Moscow court has arrested eight people suspected of hijacking a freighter at the center of a monthlong high-seas mystery, according to Russian news agencies.

The Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea left Finland on July 21 carrying a load of timber but then appeared to vanish in the Atlantic. It was found two weeks after it had been scheduled to arrive in Algeria thousands of miles off course and long out of radio contact. Maltese and other international authorities later admitted they had been tracking the ship.

Interfax and RIA Novosti say the freighter's suspected hijackers — citizens of Russia, Latvia, Estonia and three without citizenship — were arrested yesterday by Basmanny District Court in Moscow. No charges have yet been filed.

They denied guilt, claiming they were environmentalists who had sought refuge aboard the Arctic Sea after deserting their ship in a storm, the reports said.
Associated Press

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... ?uniontrib

Does anyone have any ideas as to how people can have "NO CITIZENSHIP" from some country?

Corporate Globalist can't control the pirates on the seas! GRRRRRRRRRR

The Moscow Times » Issue 4214 » News
Contradictions Cloud the Arctic Sea Case
20 August 2009
By Nikolaus von Twickel, Alexandra Odynova / The Moscow Times

Two days after the lumber freighter the Arctic Sea resurfaced off the West African coast, questions mounted about the ship’s mysterious hijacking, and national media were abuzz with speculation about what its real cargo was.

The Defense Ministry said Wednesday that eight hijackers, captured on the ship near the island nation of Cape Verde on Monday, had threatened to blow up the ship if their ransom demands were not met.

The men threw their weapons overboard when the Arctic Sea was approached by a Russian anti-submarine frigate that had been dispatched to search for the ship, Interfax reported, citing an unidentified ministry spokesperson.

When Navy officials searched the ship, they found bags with ammunition and explosives, the spokesperson added.

The Arctic Sea, a Maltese-registered cargo ship with a 15-member Russian crew and a load of sawn timber, caused a global media sensation when it seemed to disappear in the Atlantic last month after a mysterious attack in the Baltic Sea.

The lumber’s value has been put at $1.8 million, a sum that hardly justifies an attack that would amount to the most blatant act of sea banditry in European waters in centuries.

Yet the official version of what transpired is fraught with inconsistencies, prompting observers to suggest that Russian authorities are trying to cover up a smuggling or trafficking operation.

When Swedish police first said the ship had been hijacked near the island of Gotland on July 24, they cited the crew as saying masked men had bound and beat them before fleeing in a high-speed boat.

Yet Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Monday that the same hijackers — four Estonians, two Latvians and two Russians — were found on the ship off West Africa and they surrendered without a shot being fired.

One possible explanation for this contradiction is a statement issued by the European Commission last Friday that said the ship had “supposedlyâ€