Death of Slobodan Milošević
| Date | 11 March 2006 |
|---|---|
| Location | ICTY, The Hague, Netherlands |
| Outcome | War crime trial unfinished |
On 11 March 2006, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević died in his prison cell from a heart attack, while being tried for war crimes at the ICTY in The Hague, which was a major news story internationally. Milošević died a few months before the verdict was due for his four-year trial. It occurred shortly after the Tribunal rejected his request to seek specialized medical treatment at a cardiology clinic in Moscow, but the report of 30 May 2006 confirmed that he had died of natural causes and that there was "no poison or other chemical substance found in his body that contributed to the death".
Milošević was found dead in his cell on 11 March 2006 in the UN war crimes tribunal's detention centre in the Scheveningen section of The Hague. An official in the chief prosecutor's office said that Milošević had been found at about 10 a.m. and had apparently been dead for several hours. His trial had been due to resume on 14 March with testimony from the former president of Montenegro, Momir Bulatović. A request for the autopsy in the presence of a Serbian pathologist was granted, and his body was transported to the Dutch Forensic Institute.
It was established that Milošević died of a heart attack. Suspicions have been voiced:
Milošević had been suffering from heart problems and high blood pressure. Initially, the Dutch coroner failed to establish the cause of his death. Consequently, the president of the ICTY ordered an autopsy and a toxicological investigation. Immediately after his death was announced, rumours that Milošević had been poisoned started circulating.
An autopsy was held in the Netherlands; its preliminary results found that Milošević had died of myocardial infarction, the scientific term for a heart attack. The Tribunal warned that it was impossible to rule out poisoning at the time of their statement, as the toxicological tests had not been completed. The Tribunal had denied Milošević's request for travel to Russia for specialist medical treatment. He planned to appeal against this decision, saying that his condition was worsening. Shortly before his death, Milošević complained about wrong medical treatment to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that it received the letter from Milošević with his medical complaints. In the letter as provided by Milošević's lawyer Zdenko Tomanović, Milošević complained that he was being given a drug used against tuberculosis and leprosy, and that it was done in secrecy and without him (Milošević) knowing anything about it. In his hand written letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Milošević said he never used any drugs on his own, nor he was ill and in need to take medicines:
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