Two Australians and a Yugoslav working for the charity CARE International went on trial in Belgrade yesterday, charged with spying.
Mr Steve Pratt and Mr Peter Wallace, detained by Serbian authorities at the border between Serbia and Croatia on March 31st, were charged earlier this month with spying for NATO, along with a Yugoslav national, Mr Branko Jelen.
They face between 10 and 20 years in prison.
The trial started yesterday morning, with the president of the military court, Maj Ratko Korlat, presenting the five judges, the military prosecutor, Maj Milan Milosavljevic, defence attorneys and defendants.
Yugoslav lawyers Mr Ivan Jankovic and Mr Djordje Djurisic are defending Mr Wallace and Mr Pratt, while Mr Jelen is being defended by attorney Mr Zivko Mazic.
A court interpreter translated all the statements into English.
The prosecutor then proposed that the public and press be excluded because of what he said were secret data which could still be used "since the NATO bombing continues".
The judicial board accepted this, overriding defence objections, and proceedings continued in camera after some 15 people, among them the Australian ambassador, Mr Christopher Lamb, left the room.
The defence had asked for Australian consular officials, representatives of CARE, the UN Human Rights commissioner and Mr Jelen's mother to be allowed to remain.
Mr Lamb said he was "very disappointed to be excluded" and described the move as contrary to international law and the Vienna Convention. Representation would be made to the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry. He said the International Commission of Jurists had wanted to send observers to the trial but had not been able to obtain visas.
The trial is expected to last about three days. Although it is being conducted by the military, it is being held in a civilian courtroom in Belgrade.
On April 11th Serbian state television showed extracts from Mr Pratt's interrogation in which he said he had "performed some intelligence tasks in this country, using a cover of CARE Australia".
Yugoslav television said Mr Pratt "headed an intelligence network" and was suspected of collecting information about Yugoslav army and police movements and the "effects of bombing" by NATO.
The CARE US president, Mr Peter Bell, at the time dismissed the "confession" which, he suggested, had been obtained under duress.
Three other people were named in connection with the spying case - an Australian, Mr David Hill, and two Albanians, Mr Petri Sofiani and Mr Brandelin Cakaj. All three are at large.
In Canberra, the Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, lodged a protest with the Yugoslav envoy after the Australian ambassador was barred from attending the trial.
"He passed on to the ambassador Australia's strong concerns about the court's actions and how this would throw the integrity of the trial into doubt," a spokesman for Mr Downer said.
The Australian Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, said: "We hope they get a fair trial.
"They are not guilty men - they're humanitarian, decent Australians who were trying to help their fellow man and we devoutly hope that they will be free and reunited with their families as soon as possible."