No poison found in Milosevic's body

An autopsy and tests on Slobodan Milosevic’s blood found no evidence of poison or medicines in concentrations that could have killed him, the UN war crimes tribunal said today.

Tribunal president Judge Fausto Pocar also said an outside investigation will be conducted on the running of the UN detention centre where Milosevic was held during his four-year trial and where he died last Saturday.

Milosevic was ruled to have died of a heart attack, but questions were raised about the cause of the fatal cardiac problem after it was reported he had been taking medicines that were not prescribed by the UN cardiologist.

“No evidence of poisoning has been found,”cPoar said, reading the preliminary results of a Dutch toxicological report.

A number of medications were found in his body, “but not in toxic concentrations,” he said.

The results of the tests were delivered by the Dutch prosecutor’s office to both the tribunal registrar, Hans Holthuis, and to Milosevic’s lawyer, Zdenko Tomanovic, Pocar said.

Tomanovic and Milosevic’s son Marko, who came The Hague to claim the body and send it to Belgrade for burial, had said Milosevic had been killed, and accused the tribunal of responsibility for his death.

Many of Milosevic’s supporters in Serbia believe he was poisoned.

Holthuis, the tribunal’s administrative chief, ordered an external investigation to find out how Milosevic obtained drugs he was not supposed to have.

Tribunal officials earlier said he also had regular access to alcohol.