Probe shows Milosevic died natural death

By Nicola Leske

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A final investigation into the death
of Slobodan Milosevic showed that the former Yugoslav president
died of a heart attack with no sign of foul play involved,
Dutch prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Milosevic was found dead in his cell at the detention unit
in The Hague on March 11, just months before a verdict was
expected in his trial for war crimes, genocide and crimes
against humanity in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s.

There had been speculation over whether Milosevic had
deliberately tried to exacerbate his condition to strengthen
his case for release or whether he had been poisoned, as the
64-year-old suggested in a letter to Moscow the day before he
died.

“The public prosecutor has concluded that Milosevic died a
natural death. There is not a single indication that the death
was the result of foul play,” prosecutors said in a statement.

The tribunal confirmed in March that traces of rifampicin
– a leprosy and tuberculosis drug that would have neutralized
Milosevic’s medicines for his existing health conditions —
were found in a January 12 blood test.

However, initial toxicological studies done during the
autopsy of Milosevic’s body showed no traces of poison or of
other substances that might have led to his death.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) said in a statement it welcomed the
prosecutor’s final findings.

“The report … formally closes the independent
investigation of the Dutch authorities into the death of
Slobodan Milosevic,” tribunal president Fausto Pocar said.

As the investigation confirmed Milosevic died of natural
causes, the court’s own internal inquiry would focus on the
medical treatment given to him while in the tribunal’s
detention center, it said.

The tribunal expects to conclude its investigation shortly.

Initial autopsy results had also shown that Milosevic died
of a heart attack.

“In keeping with its earlier report, the National Forensic
Institute has now definitely concluded that the cause of death
was a heart attack,” prosecutors said.

NO TRACE OF POISONING

Final toxicological studies also confirmed there were no
traces of poisoning or substances which could have triggered a
heart attack.

Vladimir Krsljanin of the Sloboda association which lobbied
for the release of Milosevic told Reuters the finding was “full
of hypocrisy because it deliberately bypasses the essential
issue here and that is criminal negligence.”

“It should be clear to a child,” he said. “How could the
final investigation be reduced only to the immediate cause of
death?”

The prosecutor said that although non-prescribed medicines
were found in Milosevic’s cell in December 2005, no such
medicines were found in his cell the day after he died.

Milosevic had suffered from high blood pressure and a heart
condition, which according to the initial autopsy explained his
heart attack.

One medical expert who tested the January blood samples
said he believed Milosevic knowingly took rifampicin to improve
his case for going to Russia, where his wife, son and brother
live.

The court had denied a December request by Milosevic to
travel to Russia for heart treatment on concerns that he might
not return and ruled he could receive the best possible
treatment in the Netherlands.

(Additional reporting by Beti Bilandzic)