MOSCOW, September 17 (RIA Novosti) - The...
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General"s Office said on Wednesday the transfer of the Arctic Sea, currently anchored 15-17 miles off Spain"s Canary Islands, would take place from September 17 through September 18. The investigators did not disclose whom the ship would be handed over to.
"The Maltese decision is making it difficult for the vessel to call at the port of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, which was agreed in advance with Spain," the committee said in a statement.
The decision also makes things difficult both for the crew and for a team of Russian investigators who completed their investigation on Wednesday into the recent incident on board the ship.
The Maltese-flagged and Russian-crewed vessel, officially carrying lumber from Russia to Algeria, was reportedly boarded by a group of eight men on July 24. Officials later said it had disappeared in the Atlantic. It was freed off Cape Verde on August 16 by a Russian warship.