Hijacked ship returned
Guangxi police have arrested 14 Burmese nationals over their alleged involvement in the hijacking in March of a Panamanian-registered freighter, Marine Fortuner.
The vessel was returned to its Taiwanese owner yesterday.
Public Security Bureau officers in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Fangchenggang city port authorities held a joint press conference yesterday to announce the arrests and return of the ship.
The Marine Fortuner left for Taiwan earlier yesterday.
On March 1 the ship left Nantong port in eastern Jiangsu province.
It was heading for India when it was hijacked by more than 20 armed pirates on March 17.
The International Maritime Bureau later issued a circular to ports worldwide concerning the ship's disappearance.
When the Nuovo Tierra, a ship supposedly registered in Honduras put in at Fangchenggang, Guangxi, for maintenance, the harbour administration found that the technical data of the ship matched that of the Marine Fortuner and impounded it.
The Guangxi Public Security Bureau confirmed after an investigation that the Nuovo Tierra was in fact the Marine Fortuner, according to a Xinhua report yesterday.
The 14 crew on board confessed they had taken part in the armed hijack, the report said.
