Swedish police silent on ship hijacking investigation

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The investigation into the mysterious hijacking of the freight vessel the Arctic Sea in Swedish waters on July 24th continues. However, Swedish police are giving out little information about the state of the investigation.
     The ship is registered in Malta and is managed by a Finnish shipping company.
     Police are not saying if the tipoffs that they have received on the movements of a rubber boat that was used by the hijackers have led to anything, or if they have been in telephone contact with the crew.
     Previously the police said that they had only exchanged e-mail with the crew, as the satellite telephone was not working.
     
On Monday the Swedish newspaper Expressen said on its website that police believed that the hijackers may have picked the wrong ship in the dark. This was suggested by the fact that the attackers are not believed to have taken anything from the vessel, even though they spent 12 hours there.
     “Everything is possible at this moment, and we have not ruled out any possibility”, is all that police spokesperson Ylva Voxby would say to Helsingin Sanomat.
     According to Lars henriksson of Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Swedish police and the NBI have been in regular contact over the case. He did not want to comment on what kind of information has been exchanged, as the Swedish authorities are responsible for the investigation.
     
The Arctic Sea, with its load of sawn timber, is en route from Pietarsaari in Finland to Bejaïa in Algeria. It is expected at its destination today, Tuesday.
      Voxby says that Swedish police are not likely to go to Algeria to examine the ship and interview the crew. “To my knowledge, the police do not have any plans in this direction.”
     The head of the investigation, Ingemar Isaksson, said during the weekend in an interview with the Swedish Gotlands Tidningar that the police will interview the crew when the ship returns from Algeria sometime near August 8th.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Press report: Swedish police see ship hijacking as “mistake” (3.8.2009)
  Freight vessel of Finnish shipping line targeted by mystery pirates in Swedish waters (31.7.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat