A judge at the Slovenj Gradec District Court on Sunday ordered 30-day detention for Matic Munc and Natalija Markač to prevent re-offence and tampering with evidence.

The move by police came less than two weeks after the missing girl's father, Boštjan Kaker, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on charges of abducting the girl and negligent treatment of a minor.

While it was not initially clear why Munc and Markač were taken into custody, it later transpired that the charges against them were brought by the girl's father, who recently terminated his cooperation with Munc's mediation consultancy Svetovalnica Akcija.

Statements by his lawyer suggest Kaker had urged Munc and Markač to disclose the location of the missing girl, but they refused to do so. The father and both psychologists deny knowing her whereabouts.

This is just the last turn in a painful custody battle. Custody of the girl, now five-year-old Klara Kaker, has been awarded to the mother in February 2010, but the father refused to accept the court decision.

He back with the accusation that the girl had been sexually abused by her maternal grandfather. The charges were dismissed, but the father, who went public with the accusations, managed to resist several attempts by police to have the child taken away.

The father was arrested in June, but not before he hid the girl away.