I Have the Right to Remain Silent ...

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A Serbian prisoner using needle, thread and safety pins stitched his lips and tongue together to avoid a scheduled court hearing in his robbery case, the Blic newspaper reported Saturday.

Zoran Raskovic, 27, in custody at Belgrade's central prison, is one of six people charged with a 2003 bank heist in the central Serbian town of Mladenovac, when the group allegedly made away with the equivalent of about $153,000.

A prison guard discovered Raskovic on Friday morning after he had apparently sewed his mouth together overnight.

The needle and the safety pins were likely smuggled into the prison, Blic said. A prison surgeon was called in and removed the self-inflicted stitches, but Raskovic, who had lost some blood, subsequently was too weak to appear in court Friday.

Raskovic's lawyer, Sanja Radenkovic, told Blic she was "in shock" as her client had never been a "psychologically unstable" person.

"He likely wanted to protest the unfair length of his imprisonment pending trial," she was quoted as saying.