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Military Court Presiding Officer in Nis, Colonel Vujadin Milojevic, stated that Miroslav Filipovic, journalist from Kraljevo, was brought to Military Court in Nis today and remains in custody. Milojevic said the Court received the indictment raised by the Municipal Court in Kraljevo.

He added that he has not seen the indictment yet, since the document was in the hands of Military Prosecutor Stanimir Radosavljevic, but he was told by the investigating judge from Kraljevo that Filipovic was accused of espionage. The Municipal Court in Kraljevo sentenced Filipovic to 30 days of detention yesterday.

A group of Kraljevo independent journalists initiated a petition to release Filipovic. The petition is addressed to the FRY Ministry of Defense, Serbian Ministry of Justice and Yugoslav Army High Command. By the end of the day it will be forwarded to all independent media.

Jovo Stanojevic, District Attorney for Pozarevac, handed in his resignation today and scheduled a press conference for tomorrow to state his reasons, says Radio B2-92. Five Deputy-Attorneys from Pozarevac also resigned, while defense solicitor representing accused Otpor activists, Gradimir Nalic, said he was not surprised by the latest turn of events, since Stanojevic hinted this kind of decision when he was questioning the arrested activists. He added that the resignations will have an effect on the status of his clients, hence he was already planning a new strategy to protect them.

Investigative judge and deputy chairman of the Municipal Court in Pozarevac, Djordje Rankovic, was dismissed from these positions, said chairman Vukasin Stansisavljevic at a meeting of the Court Judiciary Council this morning. He was also relieved from dealing with assistants. The possibility of being sacked as chairman was announced by Stanisavljevic yesterday, since Rankovic took part in the May 9th gathering in Pozarevac. Rankovic confirmed to Beta agency that he was among the group of citizens with Otpor insignia who gathered in Pozarevac main square on May 9. Judge Rankovic has been working in the Pozarevac Municipal Court for 26 years and is not a member of any political party.

Serbian opposition agreed on Thursday to hold more street protests against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, including one in the strongman's home town. Opposition leaders said they would try again to stage a demonstration in the eastern town of Pozarevac after one set for Tuesday was put off at short notice.

At Thursday's meeting, opposition leaders also agreed on plans for a major protest rally in Belgrade on May 15 under the slogan: "Stop The Terror - For Democratic Elections." They hope for a repeat of a demonstration in downtown Belgrade on April 14 that gathered more than 100,000 people.

"The rally in Belgrade will be one in a series," said Vojsilav Kostunica of the Democratic Party of Serbia. "We'll organise them across Serbia with a special emphasis on protest in Pozarevac because that is a question of honour," he told the independent Beta news agency.

A Yugoslav official dismissed opposition criticism of the authorities' moves to prevent the rally in Pozarevac. Federal Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, a senior official in Milosevic's Socialist party, said police had only acted to protect citizens' safety.

"Police has a series of legal measures at its disposal in the interest of protection of the security of citizens and has to implement them in line with the law," Sainovic told a Socialist Party news conference. "In that respect traffic controls, identity checks, ownership checks are frequent and are normally conducted everywhere in the world," he said.

Sainovic said the opposition rally had not been approved by local authorities, who were organising a celebration of World War Two Victory Day on the same day, and that two such events could not take place simultaneously.

DCPS stated they cannot determine the whereabouts of their member, Ivica Vukadinovic, who was captured on May 9 when trying to enter Pozarevac. His family, his lawyer and his party are all in the dark concerning his health and fate, says the statement, and adds there are no official records of his arrest by the police.

Reporters Without Frontiers, an NGO supporting freedom of press, appealed to UN Special Envoy for human rights in former Yugoslavia, Jiri Dinstbier, to exert all his influence on authorities in Belgrade to revoke the Public Information Act.

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