NOVOSIBIRSK, October 12 (RIA Novosti, Maxim Koshmarchuk) - The relatives of former Yukos Chief Executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev, who are being transferred from Moscow to serve their eight-year prison terms, will be informed of their whereabouts after the two men have reached their destination, a local prison official said Wednesday.

Alexander Pleshkov, head of the Russian Federal Penitentiary's Siberian department, said he could not exclude the possibility that the convicts could be transferred to Siberia, though he had no details on a destination point. If Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were being transferred to a Siberian prison, their destination would be known within a week, he added.

Pleshkov said only the Federal Penitentiary Service was authorized to make decisions on the transfer of prisoners and told journalists to call the Moscow headquarters rather than bothering local departments.

"We are not concealing information, we just do not have it," the official said.