Tribunal formally closes case against Milosevic

CBC News | March 14 2006

Judges at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague have formally closed the case against Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president who died in his prison cell over the weekend.

He had been facing 66 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes related to his bloody reign during Yugoslavia's breakup in the 1990s.

Presiding judge Patrick Robinson expressed regret Tuesday that a verdict in the landmark trial was impossible. He said Milosevic's many victims will now never see justice done.

The official closing of the case ends the four-year, $230-million process that had marked the first time a sitting head of state was indicted for war crimes.

Meanwhile, there's been a breakthrough that suggests the 64-year-old former Serb leader will be buried in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia-Montenegro.

His son, Marko Milosevic, had been pushing for a funeral in Belgrade despite the fact that he and his mother, Mirjana Markovic, face charges of abuse of power if they return to their home country from Russia, where they have been living.

On Tuesday, a court in Belgrade suspended the arrest warrant for Markovic.

Her lawyers had deposited a $20,000 bond, pledging that she will appear in court for a hearing at some point in the future.

If no deal can be worked out with the current Serb government to allow them to travel, Marko Milosevic said his father may be buried in Moscow temporarily.

Marko Milosevic received a three-day visa from the Dutch government allowing him to travel to The Hague to claim his father's remains.

He arrived in the Netherlands Tuesday, insisting that Slobodan Milosevic had been murdered by UN staff.

"He got killed. He didn't die. He got killed. There's a murder," Milosevic told reporters in Amsterdam after his plane touched down.

A preliminary autopsy report released by Dutch pathologists on Sunday indicated that Slobodan Milosevic died of a heart attack.

A UN tribunal official, not named by the Associated Press, said on Tuesday that guards repeatedly found alcohol and unprescribed drugs in Milosevic's cell.

The same official said two doctors had concluded he was deliberately taking medication to undermine treatment for his heart condition.

The drugs could easily have been smuggled into Milosevic because he maintained an office at the tribunal where he was allowed to meet privately with lawyers and witnesses.

A Dutch toxicologist who has examined blood test results from Milosevic said Monday that he was convinced the so-called "Butcher of the Balkans" had been taking an antibiotic drug called rifampicin to deliberately worsen his long-standing heart condition.

Donald Uges said he believed Milosevic was doing that to bolster his claim that UN officials were poisoning him, so that he would be sent to Russia for independent tests and treatment.

Last modified March 14, 2006