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ight men suspected of recently hijacking Malaysian oil tanker MT Orkim Harmony have been identified as Indonesian nationals, officials have confirmed.

The suspects were identified on Wednesday by a team consisting of officials from the Indonesian Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and the Indonesian Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The Foreign Ministry dispatched the identification team after media quoted Malaysian navy chief Adm. Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar as saying that the eight hijackers spoke with Indonesian accents.

'€œOn June 24 at 8 a.m. local time, staff from the consulate general in Ho Chi Minh City and the Hanoi embassy were able to ascertain that the eight hijackers were indeed Indonesians,'€ Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam Mayerfas said at a press briefing on Thursday.

Mayerfas said the team had met with the eight men and did identity checks and document verifications to determine their nationalities.

In previous media reports, the eight suspects were identified as Hendry, 39, from Jakarta, Ruslan, 61, and Kurnia Wan, 49, from Natuna, Fauji, 27, from Medan, Randi Andilya, 19, and Ahjas, 35, from Natuna, Abner, 28, from Bareland and Khon Danyel Despol, 49, from Kisaran.

Mayerfas said the Vietnamese Maritime Police would continue to investigate the eight suspects.

He said the Indonesian mission in Vietnam could do little but monitor the progress of the investigation.

'€œCurrently, three countries have a stake in this case: Vietnam, whose security personnel captured the suspects in their territorial waters, Malaysia because it was their vessel hijacked and Indonesia because of the hijackers'€™ identities,'€ he said.

Mayerfas said he did not rule out the possibility of Vietnam extraditing the hijackers as the two countries had signed an extradition agreement on April 25.

Meanwhile, ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said the exact coordinates of the incident had to be determined before any decision could be made on the ensuing legal process.

'€œWe have to see which countries have [...] the evidence to prosecute these hijackers. This is currently still under deliberation by [the three countries],'€ he said on Thursday.

The eight suspects are currently being held in a guesthouse on Phu Quoc Island, where they are in good health and continue to receive legal support from the Indonesian mission there.

Orkim Harmony, a Malaysian-flagged tanker, was reported missing on June 12 after leaving Malacca on Malaysia'€™s west coast for Kuantan on the east coast. The vessel lost contact after traveling a distance into the South China Sea.

The tanker was carrying 6,000 tons of RON95 fuel, worth an estimated US$5.6 million, belonging to Malaysian state gas and oil company Petronas.

The tanker was manned by a crew of 22, consisting of 16 Malaysian nationals, five Indonesians and one Myanmar citizen. All 22 were safe but the tanker'€™s cook, an Indonesian, was shot in the thigh.

As previously reported, the wounded Indonesian crew member was being treated at a Malaysian hospital, while the other four Indonesians arrived in Kuantan last weekend.