THE HAGUE, March 31 (Hina) - The trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic before the UN war crimes tribunal resumed on Monday after it was adjourned on 18 March because of health problems of the defendant who is suffering
from high blood pressure.
THE HAGUE, March 31 (Hina) - The trial of former Yugoslav president
Slobodan Milosevic before the UN war crimes tribunal resumed on
Monday after it was adjourned on 18 March because of health problems
of the defendant who is suffering from high blood pressure. #L#
At the beginning of today's hearing, Milosevic asked the ICTY trial
chamber to allow the arrival of investigators from Belgrade in The
Hague who would interview him in relation to "a media campaign in
the Stambolic case", he said.
"I demand that it would be made possible for me to be questioned in
relation to an unheard-of media campaign being waged in the
conditions of terror carried out by the authorities in Belgrade
since this weekend," Milosevic said at the start of the hearing in a
courtroom of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Milosevic and his wife Mira Markovic are believed to have been
involved in the assassination of former Serbian president Ivan
Stambolic who became Milosevic's opponent and rival during his
regime. According to the recent findings of the local police, the
then Serbian State Security Service (SDB) abducted Stambolic in
August 2000, and his corpse was found on a hill in northern Serbia
last Friday.
The Serbian Interior Ministry has asked via her attorney that Mira
Markovic should come back in the country from Russia where she is
allegedly staying, or the police will issue a warrant for her
arrest.
The president of the ICTY's trial chamber, Judge Richard May, this
morning warned Milosevic that the chamber was dealing only with
facts relevant for his ongoing trial and that the latest
developments in Belgrade were not related to the matter.
Milosevic complained that his wife and children were "exposed to
the media campaign because of the struggle he is leading in The
Hague", and in this context he accused the tribunal's prosecution
of orchestrating that campaign.
Judge May then interrupted the defendant responding that his wife
was not a topic of the concern of the trial chamber in The Hague, and
called on Milosevic to speak if he had anything coherent to say
instead of holding speeches interesting for Belgrade.
The hearing continued with the questioning of a new protected
witness behind the closed doors.
Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice announced that the presentation of
evidence in the section in which Milosevic is indicted for war
crimes in Bosnia would began this week.
The presentation of the Croatian section of his indictment is under
way. Milosevic is charged with war crimes in Croatia and Kosovo and
with war crimes and genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(hina) ms