The Bucharest Appeals Court decided on Tuesday that two US businessmen under investigation in the locally notorious Rompetrol Case be investigated at large for the economic crimes they are charged with.

The decision rejects an appeal by prosecutors against a Bucharest Tribunal decision in early may that the Philip Stephenson and Colin Hart, business partners to Rompetrol head Dinu Patriciu, be investigated at large.

The two are charged among others with the creation of a criminal group aimed at laundering money from capital market crimes and complicity to embezzlement with serious consequences.

Prosecutors have called for the arrest of Stephenson and Hart in February 2006.