Court security guard assaults student protester

Belgrade, Tuesday - A security guard at the Belgrade Business Court today assaulted a member of the student organisation Otpor in the street outside the court building. Several Otpor activists had earlier displayed a banner reading "Goran Matic, who killed Slavko Curuvija?" in front of the court. Security guards asked the protesters to leave. After they complied, one guard ran from the building and struck the student in the street.

The court was hearing charges brought by Information Minister Goran Matic against Beta news agency and Belgrade daily Blic. Matic alleges that a story carried by Beta and published by Blic about an Otpor protest had damaged his reputation and honour.

Otpor activists were also under fire in Novi Sad, the capital of Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina today. Four members of the organisation spent almost eight hours in the Srbobran police station before being released this afternoon. A statement from Otpor's Novi Sad office alleged that police beat one of the activists, Ivan Mudrinski, while apprehending him. Police had earlier searched the apartments of the four students and confiscated a large amount of printed material.

Source: B92

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