22.11.10

Arctic Sea: Russian Prosecutor gets hijack case

Eerik-Niiles Kross




Investigations into six suspected hijackers of the Arctic Sea freighter have been completed and sent to the Prosecutor General's Office, the Investigative Committee said November 17. Earlier this month, the Investigative Committee sent the case of a suspected ninth member of the group, Sergei Demchenko, to court.

Maritime and military experts have claimed the ship was carrying S-300 anti-aircraft missiles for Iran,

Demchenko, who went to school with Savins, is accused of helping train the hijackers in Estonia.

June 2010
In a plea bargain, Savins testified against the alleged mastermind behind the attack, Eerik-Niiles Kross, the former head of Estonia's foreign intelligence service.

Savins said Kross had acted in collusion with another organizer of the attack - Sergei Demchenko, a German-based businessman.

Kross denied the allegations.

"The allegations that I ordered the seizure of the Arctic Sea are at variance with the facts," he was quoted as saying by Estonian daily Eesti Paevaleht. "I believe that these fabrications are connected to my consultation services for Georgia on security matters. Georgia is not Russia's best friend."

Kross owns Trustcorp, a consultancy firm that has in the past few years been working with Georgian state agencies.

Latvian prosecutors said there was no evidence linking Kross to the Arctic Sea seizure. Eerik-Niiles Kross, who served as the director of Security Coordination Office in the Estonian State Chancellery, which is connected to the Ministry of Defense Information Service (Riigi Teabeamet), from 1995 to 2000.

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