Two suspected hijackers of the cargo ship Arctic Sea appealed their arrest Tuesday, Interfax reported.
 
Russian Dmitry Bartenev and Latvian Vitaly Lepin, who were among the eight suspects arrested on charges of hijacking and piracy by Moscow's Basmanny District Court on Friday, said they were innocent of the changes, the report said.

It was unclear when the court would consider the appeal.
 
The authorities say the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea was hijacked on July 24 off the coast of Sweden and liberated by the Navy off the Cape Verde islands on Aug. 17.
 
Much remains unexplained about what happened and why pirates would target a ship carrying just $1.8 million in lumber. The authorities have said that the suspects demanded a ransom of $1.5 million from the ship's insurer, but no ransom demand was mentioned in the charges filed Friday.

All eight suspects have pled not guilty.
 
Eleven of the 15-member Russian crew on the Arctic Sea were flown to Moscow together with the suspects last week, but they have not been allowed to meet or speak with their families, even though Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said Friday that the crew were free to move around the city and had cell phones on them to call their families. Four crew members remain on the ship, which the authorities have said is sailing toward the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk.