A Moscow court on Wednesday ruled against an appeal submitted by a suspect in the Arctic Sea ship seizure case, upholding a lower court ruling not to hand the case to investigators in Malta or Sweden.

The appeal was brought by one of the suspected hijackers of the vessel, Dmitry Bartenev, an Estonian national.

Bartenev is reportedly one of the eight armed men who boarded the Finnish-owned, Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea ship manned by a Russian crew and listed as carrying lumber from Russia to Algeria in July. The vessel was freed off Cape Verde on August 16 by a Russian warship.

He added that the case should be handed either to Sweden, as the incident took place in its territorial waters, or to Malta, as the vessel was flying the country's flag.

A state prosecutor said it was impossible under the Russian constitution, as Russian nationals were among the suspects.

MOSCOW, November 25 (RIA Novosti)