Court to consider Arctic Sea hijacking defendant case.

MOSCOW, June 11 (Itar-Tass) - The Moscow City Court on Friday will
specially consider the case of Dmitry Savins who is accused of seizure of
the Arctic Sea dry cargo vessel.
During the investigation Savins has fully recognised his guilt and
concluded a pre-trial agreement, therefore the case will be considered
specially - without the study of the evidence and questioning of
witnesses. It is a mitigating circumstance in the imposition of punishment.
The court session will be held in an open regime.
Earlier the court sentenced another defendant in the case - Andrei
Lunyov who has also concluded an agreement with justice - to five years in
a tight security prison.
A total of eight people have been arrested over the ship's hijacking,
including citizens of Russia, Estonia and Latvia, as well as persons
without citizenship. Only two of the defendants have pled guilty and
agreed to cooperate with the investigation. The custody term for the rest
of them has been extended to August 18.
The lawyer of one of the defendants, Yelena Lebedeva-Romanova, told
Itar-Tass earlier that the defendants were charged under Article 227 of
the RF Criminal Code "Piracy," and Article 126 "Kidnapping" was excluded
from the charges. The forensic psychiatric expert examination,
criminalistic expert examination, botanical and other expert examinations
have been conducted in the case. At present the investigation is awaiting
the results of a number of other expert examinations, as well as answers
to international requests.
The Arctic Sea became known for the sea pirate attack that happened
last August.
The ship flying the Maltese flag and operated by 15 Arkhangelsk
sailors was due to bring timber from Finland to Algeria on August 4.
Contact with the ship was lost on July 28. It appeared later that a
high-speed inflatable boat carrying eight men approached the ship at 11:00
p.m. Moscow time on July 24. The men said their boat was out of order and
embarked the Arctic Sea. The crewmembers said that the men were wearing
black clothes with the word 'Policia' imprinted on the backs. The
assailants ordered the crew to head for Africa and to disconnect
navigation equipment. A Russian warship found the Arctic Sea offshore Cape
Verde on August 17 and released the crew without opening fire.
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.Turkmen president to attend SCO summit as guest of honour.

ASHGABAT, June 11 (Itar-Tass) - President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly
Berdymukhamedov at the invitation of member states of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a guest of honour will take part in the
SCO summit. On Friday morning Berdymukhamedov is arriving in Tashkent, the
national television reported.
The participation of the Turkmen president in the work of the SCO, it
is said in an official commentary, will become "another confirmation of
the policy of good neighbourliness, openness, mutual respect and goodwill
based on the neutrality principles that is consistently pursued by
Turkmenistan."
In the view of Ashgabat, the "unquestionable priority" of interaction
within the SCO framework are the "trade-economic, energy,
transport-communication and humanitarian spheres." "One of the
demonstrative examples of this is the construction of the
Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline." The leaders of
Central Asian countries and China took part in the ceremony of putting
into operation of this longest in the Asian region gas pipeline last
December.
As a guest of honour Berdymukhamedov has taken part in SCO summits
since 2007- the year of his election President of Turkmenistan.
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.Ukraine, Georgia sign agt on air service, to continue GUAM coop.

KIEV, June 11 (Itar-Tass) - Ukraine and Georgia on Thursday signed an
intergovernmental agreement on air service, Ukrainian Foreign Minister
Konstantin Grishchenko said after talks with his Georgian counterpart
Grigol Vashadze. According to him, "the sides discussed issues of the
political situation in the region, the bilateral economic relations,
issues of culture and humanitarian cooperation, exchanged the experience
of interaction with the European Union."
Vashadze for his part stated that the "rapprochement of Ukraine with
any country does not pose a threat to Ukraine-Georgia relations." He thus
commented on the process of the resumption of Ukraine's active cooperation
with Russia. He noted that "Georgia takes this as an entity," linked with
"the bilateral relations of Ukraine and Russia, as a sovereign affair of
these states." According to Vashadze, "Ukraine's rapprochement with any
third state does not present any threat to Ukrainian-Georgian relations."
He highly assessed the support by Ukrainian President Viktor
Yanukovich of "territorial integrity of Georgia" stressing that "Ukraine
plays a stabilising role in the region, guards international law." The
minister recalled a recent statement of Yanukovich to the effect that
Ukraine does not recognise independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Besides, Vashadze is certain that Ukraine and Georgia will continue
active cooperation within the framework of the international union GUAM
that, he said, "cannot be imagined without the active cooperation of the
two countries." "We continue to be allies and friends," the Georgian
minister said.
Grishchenko for his part noted that for Ukraine GUAM is first of all
cooperation in the economic, transport and tourism spheres. Kiev "does not
think that the political component should be prevailing. We see in this
structure a possibility of regional cooperation," he said.
The Georgian foreign minister has become the first official of the
government of Georgia who arrived in Kiev on a visit after Viktor
Yanukovich took office of Ukraine's president.
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.Investigator in Sakhalin runs over road policeman killing him.

VLADIVOSTOK, June 11 (Itar-Tass) - A police investigator on Sakhalin
has run over a traffic police inspector who died of injuries. The incident
took place on the night to Friday, the Sakhalin regional investigation
department of the RF Prosecutor's Investigative Committee (SKP) reported.
It has been established that the perpetrator of the tragedy in
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk "went over the speed limit in his car and ran over a
traffic police inspector who died of the injuries on the spot." The
offender policeman has been detained and criminal proceedings have been
instituted against him, it is said in an official statement of the
regional investigation department.
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.Two schooners flying Cambodia flag detained near Sakhalin.

VLADIVOSTOK, June 11 (Itar-Tass) - The fishing schooners Tairy and
Seiko flying the Cambodian flag have been detained for poaching near
Sakhalin. Coast guard inspectors found on the schooners 8.5 tonnes of live
snow crab, and the captains of the vessels had no permission for the catch.
The public relations group of the Sakhalin coast guard department of
the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday that the poacher
schooners were detained in the eastern part of the La Perouse Strait on
June 10. In 2009, the same schooners had already been caught poaching when
16.5 tonnes of crab were found on them. Both vessels are currently under
investigation.
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