The investigation confirmed the preliminary findings of a March 12 autopsy, carried out at the Dutch Institute of Forensic Medicine, which said that Milosevic had died of a heart attack, caused by a grave heart condition, and that no traces of poison or unprescribed drugs had been found.
Milosevic was found dead in his cell at the UN detention unit in Scheveningen on the morning of March 11. The statement said that a guard knocked on the cell's door around 9 am, to which Milosevic did not react. The guard returned an hour later, entered the cell and found Milosevic dead.
A coroner established the death at 10.30 am, stating in his report that death had occurred around 7.45 am and certainly between 7 and 9.
The state prosecutor ordered a toxicological analysis due to the Hague war crimes tribunal's information that unprescribed drugs had been found in Milosevic's cell in December 2005 and their traces in his blood, and due to claims by his lawyers and family that he was poisoned.
The analysis showed that no indications of poisoning nor toxicological factors which could have caused the heart attack had been found.
Numerous prescribed drugs were found in Milosevic's tissues but not in toxic concentrations. No traces of unprescribed drugs were found.
Pathologists established that it was unlikely that rifampicin, an antibiotic allegedly counterindicated for drugs against high blood pressure, of which Milosevic suffered, had been taken or prescribed in the days preceding death.
The toxicological analysis results were confirmed by tests conducted at the German Forensic Medicine Institute in Bonn.
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia president Fausto Pocar issued a statement applauding the findings of the Dutch authorities' independent investigation of Milosevic's death, which confirmed that he died of natural causes and that there had been no indications of criminal action.
Pocar announced that the tribunal's internal investigation would focus more on the medical treatment Milosevic had been receiving at Scheveningen and that it would be completed soon.