Transfer for Montenegro captives

The four captives are not in prison cells

A Yugoslav lawyer representing two British policemen and two Canadians accused of spying in Montenegro says they have been moved to a military camp in Podgorica, the capital.

The lawyer said the Yugoslav authorities have completed the investigation phase of the case, and under military law now have 48 hours to charge or release them.

He said the men were in good spirits and the two Britons had asked him to ring their families in the UK, saying they should not worry.

The four men were arrested on Tuesday in northern Montenegro while driving back to Kosovo, where they were working in the international aid effort.

Electric cables, maps and photographs of explosions were found in their car, and they were accused of espionage.

The claim has been strenuously denied by the United Nations and the European security organisation, the OSCE - both organisations have demanded the men's release.

Positive step

Our correspondent in Montenegro, Brian Barron, says the men are apparently being held in a military camp in the capital.

No arrangements had been made for British and Canadian diplomats to see them.

He says the men's transfer has to be seen as a positive step, as the case does not have the hallmarks of one heading towards formal charges of espionage - which seemed possible when the arrests were first announced on Serbian state TV in the middle of last week.

'Decision soon'

Earlier, a military source in the barracks in Andrijevica where the men were being held said a decision on their immediate future will be announced soon.

The source said the men were in good shape after four days of questioning.

They were receiving regular meals and were allowed to watch television, including BBC World TV news.

The military source says the four men are not formally under arrest, they are detained, he stresses, while their testimony is scrutinised by Yugoslav intelligence officers who have been sent from Belgrade.

Two of the men are British policemen, Adrian Pragnell, from Hampshire and John Yore from Cambridgeshire.

They were arrested in Montenegro while taking a break from training police recruits in Kosovo.

They were travelling with Canadian mining engineer Shaun Going and his nephew Liam Hall.