PAVIC, SIX OTHER MEDIA SUSPECTS BROUGHT BEFORE INVESTIGATING JUDGE

ZAGREB, Dec 5 (Hina) - Seven media magnates were taken to the Remetinec county prison near Zagreb shortly before 1 a.m. on Tuesday and were brought before an investigating judge at the Zagreb County Court around 9.30 a.m. The investigating judge on duty at the time the arrested were brought to the court decided to detain them until the morning as his office hours were over. Ninoslav Pavic, Vinko Grubisic, Juraj Hrvacic, Ivan Majic, Zdravko Jurak, Drazen Mandic, and Anton Crlenjak have been charged with association to commit crime, economic crimes, and abuse of office, defence attorneys said yesterday. They added said acts contained no elements of violence and the suspects were not charged with forming a criminal organisation, as stated by Republika daily. In its very first issue of Monday, Republika said in a front page article that Pavic, Grubisic, Miroslav Kutle and Ivic Pasalic allegedly signed a partnership agreement, forming a criminal organisation with the intent to gain complete control over the Croatian media. Kutle was already in custody on previous charges of damaging the largest national press distributor, Tisak, for some $5.25 million. Pasalic denied the allegations in a statement. (hina) ha