A Belgrade district court has turned down an appeal by ex-president Mr Slobodan Milosevic to be released from custody pending investigation on charges of corruption and abuse of power.
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Mr Slobodan Milosevic
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The former Yugoslav president's lawyer Mr Toma Fila said he had expected the appeal, lodged by himself but also entered in Mr Milosevic's own hand, to be rejected.
"I just received a decision of the court's appeals council that my appeal and the appeal of President Milosevic were rejected", Mr Fila told reporters outside the court.
Mr Milosevic was arrested on Sunday along with several aides on suspicion of siphoning off state customs funds.
The interrogation of one of them, former customs chief Mr Mihail Kertes, lasted over six hours today. Mr Fila said all present at the hearing had agreed to make no statements about the ongoing investigation.
Meanwhile EU security chief Mr Javier Solana said he would not pressure Yugoslavia to hand over Mr Milosevic to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
"We have to trust the authorities in Belgrade...we are not going to put any pressure on them (to hand him over)", Mr Solana told reporters.
Mr Milosevic is charged at the tribunal with the responsibility for the mass killings and expulsions of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo province in 1999 by Serb forces loyal to him.
The tribunal has pressured Belgrade to hand Mr Milosevic over.