The trial of the 64-year-old Milosevic, charged with 66 counts of genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and crimes against humanity in Croatia and Kosovo in the 1990's, started on 12 February 2002 and is expected to end this year. This is the first time a head of state is standing trial for war crimes at the tribunal.
The central and most complex trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), whose indictment and evidence overlap with those of other ICTY trials, has broken all deadlines and become the longest war crimes trial ever.
Over the last four years, more than 350 witnesses, including 50 for the defence, testified in the trial, including foreign statesmen, international mediators, members of UN peace forces, political leaders from the former Yugoslavia, members of the Yugoslav People's Army, associates of the accused and numerous victims.
Thousands of documents, audio and video recordings, written witness statements and other evidence were introduced, with the case file containing hundreds of thousands of pages.
According to the existing trial schedule, Milosevic has 21 days to complete presenting his evidence and the presentation of defence is expected to be completed by the end of March or early in April, unless there are new delays due to the defendant's health.
The defence and the prosecution will most probably deliver their closing statements before the summer recess and a judgement will be handed down by the end of this year.
Prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff, who is in charge of the section of the indictment referring to Croatia, today challenged the credibility of the witness Kostic, the Montenegrin member of the Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991, presenting evidence of his being a zealous supporter of Milosevic's policy, inciting nationalism and advocating an armed intervention against the seceding republics.
The prosecutor spoke about Kostic's visit to the eastern Croatian village of Borovo Selo in July 1991, stating that the visit was seen as his support to the killing of Croatian police officers in the village on 2 May 1992.
The prosecutor also contested the allegation underpinning Kostic's testimony, which is that the presidency of the rump Yugoslavia in late 1991 was legitimate and operated in line with a decision on the existence of imminent threat of war. She said that no such decision had been discovered in the presidency's archives, but that such a statement was made at a session of the presidency that was not attended by representatives from Croatia and Slovenia.