The psalmist this Sunday proclaims with confidence that the Lord "confronts the evildoers." Determining who is responsible for the nearly three-week disappearance of the Arctic Sea, a Russian-crewed freighter found Monday, may be a different story. The ship's mysterious disappearance sparked fears of hijacking, and the mystery has only deepened since the ship was located.

A Russian Defense Ministry official insisted Wednesday that the ship had been commandeered and that hijackers had demanded a ransom and threatened to blow up the vessel if their demands were made public.

Some security experts, however, said they suspect the Russian claims may be an effort to dress up a smuggling or trafficking operation as a piracy incident. The suspicions have been fed by the limited information available from the government and the manner in which it has been released.

Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced Monday that the Russian navy had reached the ship off West Africa on Monday and arrested eight suspected hijackers without a shot being fired. Further details were provided Wednesday by state news agencies, citing an unnamed ministry official.

"Crew members confirm that a ransom demand was made by the hijackers and if their demands were not met the hijackers threatened to blow up the vessel," the ministry official reportedly said. The crew said the hijackers were armed but threw their weapons overboard when the Russian naval frigate approached, the reports said.

But maritime and security experts said they doubted the ransom claim. "This business about the ransom, I believe this very little," said Mikhail Voitenko, editor of the online Maritime Bulletin-Sovfracht. He and others have speculated that the freighter was carrying an undeclared cargo, possibly weapons or drugs.

Voitenko said he did not suspect the Russian government of smuggling; it was more likely the work of a well-connected business clan. Tarmo Kouts, a former commander of the Estonian defense forces, said Russia's version of the incident raised many questions. "This whole story looks so far-fetched that it would be naive to believe Russia's official version," Kouts was quoted as saying in the Estonian newspaper Postimees.

Source: Articles by Jim Heintz and David Nowak for Associated Press