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The five-member Judicial Council of the Military Court in Nis, presided by Colonel Radenko Miladinovic, sentenced Miroslav Filipovic, correspondent of Belgrade daily Danas and AFP, to seven years of prison for espionage and spreading false information.

Despite having said that he would announce the verdict today at 14:00, Colonel Radenko Miladinovic, President of the Military Court Judicial Council abruptly stated he was going to repeat the main hearing. Colonel Miladinovic explained that the new main hearing was necessary for two new pieces of evidence to be exhibited. He added that Filipovic would have to be heard once more in regard to information concerning Second Army units stationed in Podgorica and military units in the Uzice region, which were mentioned in Filipovic's articles.

"Since highly confidential information is on the agenda, we will have to close the hearing for the public again", said Colonel Miladinovic, after which the courtroom was emptied of journalists and TV cameras, among them the CNN International crew.

Filipovic's solicitor, Zoran Ateljevic, told B2-92 it was a first degree verdict and the explanation would have to arrive during the next fifteen days. "Filipovic was sentenced to 4 years of prison on the count of espionage and three years, a maximum sentence, for the count of spreading false information", Ateljevic said.

When asked how Filipovic and his family took the verdict and what will be the reaction of his defence team, Zoran Ateljevic said that Filipovic was stable right after the verdict.

"I talked to him and I think he will be okay, as far as that is concerned. We will lodge an appeal and the final verdict will have to be reached in the Supreme Military Court in Belgrade. We shall demand the Filipovic's presence there. This procedure has to end before a deadline of 90 days. So, we are in for an Autumn at the Supreme Military Court", Ateljevic said.

Most Serbian citizens think that the opposition should not boycott the elections, even if it does not manage to reach an agreement with the ruling coalition on fair conditions. This is the result of a survey conducted on the territory of Serbia without Kosovo by the Centre for Political Surveys and Public Opinion at the Belgrade Institute of Social Sciences for Beta news agency.

From 1,382 adult citizens from 83 randomly picked municipalities, 43% said they were against boycott of elections, 22% supported this option while 35% were not sure. According to current popularity rates, the opposition is ahead of the ruling parties at all electoral levels (federal, republic, local).

"Montenegro will not take any measures that could result in another war in Yugoslavia", said Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic in Berlin yesterday, after being asked of the possibility of a referendum on independence following recent amendments to the Constitution made by Slobodan Milosevic.

"But we are also unprepared to make compromises that will have a negative effect on democratisation, economic reforms and integration into European and trans-Atlantic structures. Montenegro shall become a democratic, multi-ethnic and European state, with or without Serbia", Djukanovic said after separate talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Prime Minister Joska Fischer.

The German Chancellor acquainted Djukanovic with basic conclusions from the G-8 summit in Okinawa, stressing discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said that the constructive policy of the Montenegrin Government can count on German support and expressed his understanding of the position of Montenegro after amendments to the Constitution that annulled the constitutional and legal foundation of the Yugoslav federation, calling them unacceptable and illegitimate. Schroeder emphasized that Germany would not try to influence anyone's participation or non-participation in Yugoslav elections, but will continue to support democratic forces and policies that lead to peace and stability in the region. Special emphasis was put on a more active role of Russia in resolving the Yugoslav crisis and preventive actions against a new conflict on the Balkans. Further direct contacts between Montenegro and Germany have been agreed on after yesterday's discussions.

The Serbian government is planning to take control of the Internet in the country, based on the recently adopted republic Law on public companies and performing work of public interest, web site beograd.com find out from "the reliable sources".

According to information obtained by beograd.com the law, which states that private companies in the area of telecommunication and information must sign contracts with the republic government and receive authorization for their status, fees and other deceptions, will include Internet service providers. The source at beograd.com said that this would mean that lists of all users of a certain provider, as well as copies of their e-mails would be available to state authorities.

The state would also be able to rise the access price to the Internet. Providers which have large foreign debts would go under, to the Internet would remain in the hands of the obedient, warns beograd.com

In the past few days the media have been incorrectly informing the public of some "incident" caused by a Yugoslav Navy border patrol boat on the Skadar lake by stopping a boat of the Montenegrin police stated the Command of the Yugoslav Navy, offering their version of the event.

The statement said that the boat stopped was later found to be a police boat, and that it did not have a FRY flag, nor police markings. The behavior of the Montenegrin police officers was provocative, even though they were aware that they had violated the border regime. It was also said that police boats accompany smugglers? boats in the vicinity of the Bar port, risking confrontation with the Yugoslav Navy.

Red Star Belgrade won the first leg of a European Champions League second round qualifying match against Torpedo Kutaisi (Georgia) on Wednesday, but a good result (4:0) and neat play by Yugoslav champions was marred by clashes between the fans and riot police.

Red Star took a 3:0 lead after Goran Drulic, Branko Boskovic and Mihajlo Pjanovic each found the back of the net in a frantic 15-minute spell in the dying minutes of the openning half.

Midway through the first half, when police moved into the crowd as the Red Star's supporters chanted anti-government slogans like "Save Serbia and kill yourself Slobodan", the fighting broke out and the attention of both spectators and the players shifted from the pitch to clashes on the terraces.

Police, as usual, had no mercy, and have beaten everyone who had the bad luck to be found at the end of a club. The fans on the northern terrace, cheered by the others, retaliated by ripping out seats and throwing them at police, who were forced to retreat but then stormed back into the crowd 15 minutes after the interval as reinforcements arrived.

Tension on the terraces eased in the closing stages of the match. The players also could turn back their thought to the match and that resulted with another goal - Drulic completed the scoring with a last-minute strike after a dazzling solo run.

After the match a wide area around the stadium was crowded with the police jeeps and wans, and the ambulance cars.

As FreeSerbia learnt, the UEFA delegate of the match was told that the reason of the police intervention was the fight between the fans' groups. But, before the police entered the terraces, we haven't seen any incident, except a few fire-crackers thrown after home team scored.

Second leg of the match will be played next week in Kutaisi, and if the Red Star team ends the formality - in the third round it should meet the Ukrainian Champion - Dynamo Kiev.

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