Arctic Sea crew, hijackers interrogated in Moscow

[August 20, 2009]  MOSCOW (AP) -- Investigators immediately whisked the crew of the Arctic Sea away for interrogation Thursday after they flew into Moscow, as officials tried to determine whether the 11 seamen were involved in their ship's curious hijacking.

The news deepened the mystery surrounding the cargo ship, which the Russian military said it had freed Monday off West Africa weeks after it went missing. Officials said later they were withholding details about ship's whereabouts in an effort to help the rescue effort.

Russian federal investigators said they were questioning the sailors and the eight suspected hijackers. Interfax news agency said both groups had been brought to the notorious Lefortovo prison run by the main KGB successor agency.

Interfax cited an unidentified law enforcement official saying the crew would be set free if the investigators confirm they hadn't been involved in the hijacking.

The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, confirmed that 11 crew and eight suspected hijackers returned to Moscow from Cape Verde on Thursday and said the ship's captain and three other crew members stayed on ship.

The Arctic Sea had been due to dock in Algeria on Aug. 4 and unload its cargo of timber, but the Kremlin said the ship was being brought to Russia's Black Sea Port of Novorossiisk for further investigation. The Kremlin statement on Thursday made no mention of any plan to stopover in Algeria.

State-run Vesti-24 TV showed footage of what it said were the air force planes arriving at the Chkalovsky air base field outside Moscow, and men believed to be the hijackers being escorted by special forces soldiers.

Earlier, men identified as Arctic Sea crew members told Vesti that the ship and its cargo of euro1.3 million ($1.8 million) worth of timber was seized in the Baltic Sea by armed gunmen.

One unidentified man told Vesti that a crew member sent a text message saying the ship had been hijacked, but the hijackers then forced the captain at gunpoint to report that everything was normal on board.

Vesti also showed men it identified as the suspected hijackers in handcuffs being led by Russian marines to buses on the Cape Verde island of Sal. Russia says four of the detained hijackers were Estonians, while the others were from Russia and Latvia.

The group was reportedly brought to Moscow in three heavylift Il-76 transport planes, each capable of carrying 40 metric tons (44 tons) of cargo.

It was unclear, however, why three planes were needed to fly a small group to Moscow, and why one of Russia's largest planes -- often used to transport heavy weapons and other balky cargo -- were used for the operation.

Officials have said the hijackers demanded a ransom and threatened to blow up the freighter if their demands were not met. But Russian and European maritime experts have cast doubt on the ransom reports and speculation has grown that the freighter was carrying undeclared or even contraband cargo, possibly weapons or drugs.

Those suspicions have been fueled by the thin trickle of information from the Russian government.

Yevgeny Limarev, a former Russian security agent, said the Arctic Sea was likely at the center of a struggle between competing Russian business and Kremlin clans, and the Kremlin was forced to intervene to prevent an international scandal.

The ship left a Finnish port on July 21 with a crew of 15 Russians. More than a week later, Swedish police said they received a report that masked men had raided the ship in the Baltic Sea and beaten the crew before speeding off 12 hours later in their inflatable craft.

The Maltese-flagged freighter gave no indication of any difficulties or change in its route during radio contact while passing through the English Channel on July 28. Signals from the ship's tracking device were picked up off the French coast late the next day.

A Swedish police spokeswoman, Linda Widmark, said Swedish authorities last had contact with the ship on July 31, in a brief telephone call with someone who identified himself as the captain.

"It was a very short phone call, it was cut off, but it seemed as if everything was normal," she told The Associated Press.

A Russian company, Renaissance Insurance, said it received a ransom demand for $1.5 million on Aug. 3.

The Arctic Sea was operated by the Finnish company Solchart, which has Russian management and a sister company providing technical support in the Russian city of Arkhangelsk, the home of all 15 crew.

[Associated Press; By MIKE ECKEL]

Associated Press writers Malin Rising in Stockholm and Dave Nowak in Moscow contributed to this report.

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