The Russian Prosecutor General's Office appealed a Moscow district court's ruling that a new investigation into the former head of the bankrupt oil company Yukos and his business partner cannot be conducted in Siberia, a spokesman for Moscow's City Court said Thursday.

Moscow's Basmanny Court ruled Tuesday that a preliminary investigation in East Siberia into new money laundering charges against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev is illegal.

The court granted an appeal by Khodorkovsky's and Lebedev's lawyers demanding that the investigation be conducted in Moscow. Lawyer Yury Shmidt said Tuesday both men must be transferred to Moscow if the court's ruling comes into force.

Commenting on the prosecutors' appeal, Shmidt said, "The ruling by the Basmanny Court was justified so that they (the prosecutors) cannot have any arguments at all."

He said the Prosecutor General's Office should regard the Basmanny Court's ruling as "inevitable".

(RIA Novosti)