Serbs to put Milosevic on trial for murders

THE trial in Serbia of Slobodan Milosevic on charges of ordering the killing of two political rivals will probably begin within two months, a judge said yesterday.

Ivan Stambolic, Serbia’s former president and Milosevic’s political mentor, was abducted and killed in 2000, the same year that opposition leader Vuk Draskovic was targeted in a failed assassination attempt.

Milosevic, who served both as president of Yugoslavia and the former Yugoslav republic of Serbia for a decade, will be tried in his absence for allegedly masterminding those two crimes.