10.09.2009

Arctic Sea crew still being held more than 50 days after "rescue"

The families of four Russian sailors at the centre of an arms-smuggling mystery have appealed to Vladimir Putin to free them, more than 50 days after their ship was allegedly rescued from pirates.

The wives of Captain Sergei Zaretsky and three crew members on board the Arctic Sea urged the Prime Minister to intervene as a row over the cargo ship flared between its Finnish owner and Russian prosecutors. The vessel has been the focus of intense speculation that it was being used to smuggle S-300 air defence missiles to Iran after it apparently fell victim to the first act of piracy in North European waters for hundreds of years.

The women said that nobody knew where the Arctic Sea was heading after plans to dock the ship at Las Palmas, on the Canary Islands, collapsed almost three weeks ago.

"Our husbands need urgent medical and psychological help, they have been in total information isolation for 74 days," they wrote to Mr Putin. "We ask you to assist in urgently returning our husbands home while they are still alive."

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