Malta has joined forces with Sweden and Finland to investigate the alleged aggravated extortion and hijacking of the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea, which disappeared more than two weeks ago.
The Malta Maritime Authority yesterday said local authorities were working closely with their Swedish and Finnish counterparts to investigate the disappearance of the 3,988-tonne Russian-owned cargo ship.
The authority said it was not possible to provide more information, taking into consideration "the general characteristics of the aggravated extortion and the related significant threats to life and health".
According to AFP news agency, Finland's police have confirmed that a ransom was demanded from the Finnish owners of the ship.
"Yes, it is true that there has been a demand for ransom, which is money, and the demand has been made to the company which owns the ship, Solchart Management in Finland," Finnish Detective Chief Superintendent Jan Nyholm told the news agency.
Solchart director Viktor Matveyev yesterday told Reuters: "I don't sleep. I don't eat. I have been working 24 hours a day. We hope that the crew is alive."
Confusion about the whereabouts of the ship persisted yesterday. On Friday international news agencies reported that the Arctic Sea had been spotted some 740 kilometres off one of the Cape Verde islands. But the sighting remained unconfirmed.
Yesterday, Russian maritime website Sovfrakht claimed that the Arctic Sea's tracking system had broadcast signals from the Bay of Biscay, off France. The website did, however, say this did not mean that the automatic tracking equipment was necessarily on board the ship.
However, French Marines later said that the signals were coming from Russian warships which have been sent to search for the ship.
The ship, with 15 Russian crew on board, was carrying some €1 million worth of timber from Finland to Algeria, where it was meant to arrive on August 4. But it disappeared off the radar after passing through the English Channel late last month and never made it to its destination. Nor did it go through the Straits of Gibraltar, triggering the suspicion that it was still in the Atlantic Ocean.
In a statement on July 31, the MMA said the ship had allegedly been hijacked off Sweden the week before. It said several hooded and armed people in police uniforms arrived on a black dinghy and boarded the ship in the middle of the night.
Crew members had been tied, gagged and blindfolded, with some seriously injured and claiming to have been aggressively questioned about drug trafficking. Later they were released and locked in cabins until the men had rummaged through the vessel.
Yesterday the MMA said the authorities have not been able to confirm the alleged hijacking and the connection between such an incident and the ship's disappearance had not yet been established.
Timeline of vanishing Russian-crewed Arctic Sea
A timeline of events surrounding the disappearance of Russian-crewed cargo ship Arctic Sea, which vanished in late July before being spotted on Friday.
July 23 - The Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea leaves Finland bound for the Algerian port of Bejaia, carrying a cargo of about 6,700 cubic metres of sawn timber estimated to be worth €1.16 million.
July 24 - Eight to 10 masked men board the ship between the Swedish islands of Oland and Gotland in the Baltic Sea at about 0100 GMT, claiming to be anti-drugs police, according to Swedish detectives who release details on July 30.
"They tied up the crew and then went through the ship with a fine-tooth comb," detective Ingemar Isaksson told AFP. They reportedly left after about 10-12 hours, having freed the crew.
July 28 - British coastguards make routine radio contact with the ship as it passes through the English Channel but have no suspicions anything is wrong.
July 30 - Last signal received from the Arctic Sea under the AISLive automatic tracking system, putting the ship off the coast of northwestern France in the early hours, according to Lloyds Register which owns the system operators.
The French regional surveillance centre (Cross) near Brest confirms the Arctic Sea was spotted overnight July 29-30 near the island of Ushant.
July 31 - Swedish police contact the Arctic Sea but refuse to give any details of their exchange, which is the last known contact with the ship.
Spokeswoman Ylva Voxby tells AFP on August 12 that they expect the ship to return to the Baltic at the end of the month. "We are planning to interview the crew then," she said.
August 4 - The ship fails to arrive in Algeria as planned.
August 11 - An Interpol alert prompts the British coastguard to reconsider their contact with the ship and they suggest pirates could have been in control as it passed through the English Channel - if confirmed, the first such incident in living memory in European waters, they say.
August 12 - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev orders his navy to join the search for the Arctic Sea, urging the defence ministry "to take all necessary measures to find and free" the missing vessel and its 15-strong Russian crew.
Maltese officials say they believe the ship is in the Atlantic Ocean.
August 14 - Officials in Cape Verde and France say the ship has been spotted off the archipelago, which lies off the west African coast.
A European Union spokesman says it appears the ship has been attacked twice.
August 15 - Finnish police say a ransom has been demanded from the owners of the ship, Solchart Management in Finland.