Murky waters

A COURT in Russia's far northern region of Arkhangelsk is hearing testimony from six men accused of hijacking the Arctic Sea, a cargo ship, in 2009, the bizarre disappearance of which prompted international speculation about a secret Russian arms sale to the Middle East gone awry.

The defendants, who face up to 15 years in jail on charges of kidnapping and piracy, have pleaded guilty, although five of them dispute details of the indictment. But the circumstances surrounding their case are so murky, and the official version so implausible, that their relatives are convinced they were duped into covering up something the Russian government wants to remain secret.

The Russian navy says the ship was carrying timber from Finland to Algeria when it was hijacked by six armed pirates, most of them unemployed ethnic Russians living in an impoverished neighbourhood of the Estonian capital, Tallinn. The disappearance triggered an international search on the high seas until Moscow claimed it had freed the ship's crew after discovering the vessel off the west coast of Africa.

But reports from Israel said the Arctic Sea had been first intercepted by Mossad, and that the Israelis had warned the Kremlin to stop its shipment - or they would seize it themselves.

After their arrest, the alleged pirates claimed they had been hired to conduct temporary environmental work - gathering evidence of illegal pollution from ships - and were training on a rubber boat in the Baltic Sea when a storm blew them off course. They said they were rescued by the Arctic Sea and later set up for a cover meant to save the Kremlin embarrassment.

But prosecutors in Arkhangelsk say the defendants attacked the ship and threatened to use weapons against the crew before demanding a ransom of 1.5m. Russian media have reported a lawyer for the defendants as saying their pleas stated they were promised 10,000 each for the hijacking. Three men have already been sentenced by other Russian courts over the affair: a Latv! ian busi nessman accused of organising the alleged hijacking received four years and two of the "pirates" got three and seven years in prison.

As if the story weren't strange enough, last year a handwritten letter allegedly penned by one of the jailed men - an unemployed roofer before the Arctic Sea incident - appealed to the international community to take concerns over pollution in the Baltic Sea seriously. "We know how to save the Baltic Sea basin from serious environmental catastrophe," it read.

Only a few crew members are taking part in the trial in Arkhangelsk. They've been barred from talking to reporters about the alleged hijacking. In Tallinn, the defendants' families fear the worst.

Alexei Bartenev, the brother of one of the defendants, says the case remains a mystery. "Only those on board know what happened," he says. Mr Bartenev wonders why Russia is trying a case involving a ship registered in Malta, owned by a company in Finland, and alleged to have been intercepted in Swedish waters by residents of Estonia. He also wonders why the eight alleged hijackers and some of the crew - 16 people in all - were flown from Africa to Russia on two large Ilyushin-76 cargo planes capable of carrying 40 tons each, if not also to carry weapons or other illicit cargo. "All I can say is that it's very suspicious."