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 harbour and was returned to its owner. The four crew members, 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 flew a new crew into Valletta. Repairs were made during the week of 3 November and then the ship finally delivered its cargo of sawn lumber to Algeria. In March 2011 6 of the 8 alleged hijackers were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 7 to 12 years. One of the convicted men, Yevgeny Mironov, was sentenced to seven years of hard labor.
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 speculation on the nature of the operation. A rapporteur on piracy for the
Assembly of the Western European Union and former commander of the
Estonian Defence Forces Tarmo Kõuts was quoted in the Estonian newspaper
Postimees 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
Somali piracy crisis. According to a widely circulated theory, the ship was transporting anti-aircraft weapons and cruise missiles destined for Iran, and the "hijackers" were gangsters hired by the Israeli intelligence service
Mossad to prevent the cargo from reaching its destination. Referring to an earlier article in Russia's
Komsomolskaya Pravda,
The Independent reported that an unnamed general in the Russian Navy spoke of his suspicion that
Russian organized crime was illegally shipping
S-300 or
Kh-55 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, The S-300 missiles allegedly were loaded on board when the ship stopped in
Kaliningrad. Other speculation links the hijacking with Syria's aim to purchase
MiG-31 jetfighters, which were actually officially ordered in 2007. The order was 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 speculation that 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, leader of the Russian investigative team. He stated that he would "not rule out the possibility that [
Arctic Sea] might have been carrying not only timber." On 3 September 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. 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 on board 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 pointed out that Russia has direct access to Iran through the
Caspian Sea. However, Russia deployed two
Ilyushin Il-76 transporter planes with a load capacity of at least 45 tons each to
Amílcar Cabral International Airport in Cape Verde, which prompts the question whether there was more payload than the 14 crew members and 8 suspects to be taken home.
Sal International Airport has a long history as a strategic refueling location for Russian and former Soviet Bloc aircraft flying to and from Latin America and the Caribbean. Speculations say the vessel may have 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. In November 2010, the
diplomatic cables leak revived the discussion for a period of time, 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 had pleaded guilty. One of them, Andrei Lunev, a Russian citizen, was 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, but the maximum term is increased to 15 years if an act of piracy is performed by an organised group. 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 named an Estonian businessman, diplomat and a former chief of the Estonian intelligence service
Eerik-Niiles Kross as a mastermind of the operation. A German and an Israeli businessmen were named as related to the crime as well, although no evidence of that was disclosed. On 3 December 2010, Russian court sentenced Sergei Demchenko, a Latvian businessman, to three years of imprisonment. He had earlier made a plea bargain with Russian Prosecution Service and 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 have remained vague. Even the fact that he had allegedly been arrested was first reported by media on 1 December, yet as late as on 3 December 2010 it was not known to media when and where Russian police had detained him. One of the six remaining accused requested a jury trial. This move caused some legal complications, as all the remaining accused had then to be tried by jury as a group. The case was assigned to Arkhangelsk Oblast Court (
Arkhangelsk was considered the official place of residence for
Arctic Sea crew) and the preliminary hearing was due to take place on 16 December 2010. In accordance with Russian law, earlier testimonies given by Savins
et al. as part of a plea bargain would not have been admissible then in jury trial. During the preliminary hearing it was revealed that the accused who had chosen a jury trial had reportedly changed their minds; therefore the outcome of the case remained subsequently to be decided by judges alone. On 24 March 2011, the court returned its verdict on the remaining accused and "the men – a Russian, a Latvian and an Estonian citizen, as well as three others described as stateless – were given sentences ranging from 7 to 12 years." ==References==