Updated: Russia accepts Malta's request to take part in investigations

Russia is acceding to a request by Malta to allow Maltese representatives to take part in the ongoing investigations on the Arctic Sea, the Maritime Authority’s Maritime Security Committee said.

Speculation has been raging that the Arctic Sea - a ship that was seized by pirates near Sweden last month and vanished for weeks before being recaptured by the Russian navy - may have held weapons or even nuclear materials.

The Maltese-flagged ship with a crew of 15 Russian sailors was officially heading to Algeria with a cargo of timber.

The committee’s request was made in terms of Malta’s rights and obligations as the flag State. It has been in continuous contact with the Russian Authorities as part of its own investigations.

In the meantime, AFP has reported that Russia today charged eight suspects in the hijacking of the cargo ship with kidnapping and piracy.

The suspects include a man suspected of masterminding an operation that remains swathed in mystery.

The suspects are charged with seizing the ship and its Russian crew on the night of July 24 while posing as police and then holding the sailors by force, the investigative committee of Russian prosecutors said in a statement.,

"Several members of the crew showed signs of bodily injury. After hijacking the ship, the suspects held the crew in separate berths, in isolation, to prevent any possibility of resistance," it added.

While seven of the men were charged with participation in piracy and armed kidnapping, prosecutors said, an eighth has been charged with being the apparent mastermind of the operation.

"The eighth suspect has been charged with organising the above-mentioned crimes," the statement said.

"Their roles were set out and the plan worked out in advance. They equipped themselves ahead of time with arms to put down resistance by the ship's crew and also masks and black clothing marked with the word 'POLICE'," it said.

The eight suspects were brought to Russia last week aboard massive military transport planes from the Cape Verde archipelago, off which the Russian navy had succeeded in regaining control of the vessel from the hijackers.

The suspected hijackers -- citizens of Russia, Estonia and Latvia -- have been held in detention in Moscow ever since they stepped off the planes under armed guard.

Numerous questions remain unanswered about the ship's mysterious nearly month-long disappearance, and comments by top Russian officials this week fuelled suspicions that the ship may have been carrying illicit cargo.

Shipping experts have questioned why the hijackers would take so much time and risk over a relatively insignificant cargo, seizing the ship in the Baltic Sea in one of Europe's busiest shipping lanes.

Eyebrows were also raised after Russia brought back crew, suspects and investigators from Cape Verde aboard three huge Ilyushin-76 military transport planes when far smaller aircraft would have sufficed.

Meanwhile, rather than heading for emotional reunions with families, the 11 crew who returned are not being allowed out of the capital and reportedly cannot discuss the events with their families on the phone.

Alexander Bastrykin, who heads the investigative committee of Russian prosecutors, said on Tuesday that the crew had been asked to stay in Moscow as "we must figure out if any one of them was involved in those events".

This week the Russian tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets, citing Russian security sources, said the ship was smuggling arms and that the hijackers were stooges hired by the intelligence service of an EU member state to intercept it.

Russian officials have said that a preliminary search when the ship was recaptured turned up nothing suspicious.

But they vowed a more thorough search when the Arctic Sea -- currently returning to Russia from African waters -- reaches the Russian port of Novorossiisk in early September.