The saga of the Arctic Sea has ended, after the vessel was handed over to its Finnish owners outside harbour, entered harbour after having been inspected by MMA officials and other government officers, and sailed out last Thursday having undergone repairs.

The inspections revealed that there was no illegal cargo on board except timber. But from various reports in the media locally and worldwide there are a lot of questions which have been left unanswered.

To start with, why were the Russians so keen to intercept the Arctic Sea on the high seas and sent the Russian Navy to seize it and arrest the hijackers? Did the Russians know of any missiles on board and why did they act so fast to take over the ship before anybody else did? Did the Israelis monitor the vessel and alert the Russians who immediately took action to avert a diplomatic embarrassment? Who are the hijackers who are now being tried in Russia? Why have the Russian crew been kept in isolation without communicating with their families and the outside world? Why has one of the alleged pirates spoken about a possible cover-up by the Russian government?

Why was the ship not inspected by MMA, the Finnish owners and Swedish government when the Russian navy boarded the vessel and why were the hijackers not handed over to the Maltese government for trial in a Maltese court? If the Arctic Sea carried Russian arms for Iran, did the Israelis create a lot of noise with the Russians to block the cargo from reaching its destination? Why did the hijacker suspects want to be tried in Malta? All these questions of course are sheer conjecture but nevertheless they raise suspicions.

I was taken to task by someone who wrote that the Russians acted under international law and had every right to arrest the hijackers. This is correct but by the same law the Russians should have acted in good faith. Have they done so? I still maintain that the Russians should have turned over the hijackers to the Maltese government.

By the same token there was also a recent case where a sailor died in a collision involving a Maltese flagged ship at sea. I ask, why did the MMA not carry out an investigation or more properly a magisterial inquiry under Maltese law as is normally done on land in Malta?

The saga of the Arctic Sea has ended but the truth will never be known. The Russians are the only people who know the truth about the mystery ship.