The Hague, The Netherlands – An autopsy showed that a heart attack killed Slobodan Milosevic, the U.N. war-crimes tribunal said Sunday evening in a terse announcement that served only to deepen the mystery over the circumstances surrounding Milosevic’s abrupt death just as his prolonged trial was finally nearing an end.
The autopsy result was disclosed as new evidence emerged that Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president found dead in his prison-cell bed Saturday, had been taking medicine not prescribed by his physicians, including an antibiotic known to diminish or blunt the effect of the medicines he had been taking for heart and blood-pressure problems.
Whether he had taken that antibiotic deliberately or for some other reason was unclear, but one of Milosevic’s legal advisers said Sunday that Milosevic knew something was wrong and had expressed fear in a letter written one day before he was found dead that someone had been trying to poison him. The U.N. tribunal has dismissed the poisoning speculation and has not ruled out suicide.
The death of Milosevic, 64, sent shock waves through the tribunal here, putting it on the defensive just as a defining moment in the history of the Yugoslav war-crimes prosecutions appeared at hand.
His death also raised a whole set of new issues for the United States and the European Union, which had hoped that the conclusion of his four- year trial, where conviction was widely expected, would help expedite resolution of other problems left over from Milosevic’s catastrophic rule in the 1990s.
The autopsy, which said Milosevic had died of a myocardial infarction, or heart attack, was performed by three Dutch pathologists at The Hague.
Their report identified “two heart conditions” from which Milosevic suffered, which they said might explain the heart attack. The results of a toxicological report will be available this week, the court said.
Lawyers close to Milosevic said the toxicological report could reveal substances in his blood that might have contributed to his death. But if so, how did they get there?
During his trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, judges were told that he seemed to be manipulating his health. Proceedings were suspended more than 20 times.
“He has a proven track record of taking unprescribed medicine, of messing with his medication,” said Jean-Daniel Ruch, an adviser to the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte. “I am not sure if we will know the full truth.”
But a January report by the prison doctor that was disclosed Sunday by Zdenko Tomanovic, one of Milosevic’s lawyers, said an antibiotic known as Rifampicin, used to treat serious bacterial infections such as tuberculosis and leprosy, had been found in Milosevic’s blood.
Dr. Donald Uges, a top toxicologist in the Netherlands who was asked by the tribunal to confirm the findings in a further test in February, said Sunday he had found the same antibiotic in a blood sample from Milosevic two weeks ago.
The antibiotic is known to diminish or blunt the effectiveness of the prescribed medicines that Milosevic was taking, including beta blockers, as part of his treatment for high blood pressure and heart problems, Uges said. As a result, it may have kept Milosevic’s blood pressure high.
The court first asked for the blood tests in November, when it appeared that Milosevic’s blood pressure would not go down and he repeatedly fell ill.
Tomanovic said the findings, including Uges’ confirmation, were received Tuesday by Milosevic. That prompted Milosevic to write two letters to the Russian embassy at The Hague on Friday – one day before he was found dead.
Tomanovic showed reporters copies of two letters from Milosevic. In one, which Tomanovic paraphrased in English, Milosevic said blood tests had found traces of a “strong drug” – an antibiotic – which he said was used only for treatment of leprosy and tuberculosis. “I have never taken any antibiotic in five years,” Milosevic was quoted as saying.
Tomanovic said that in the letter Milosevic said that proved he was being poisoned.
Throughout his political career, and over more than four years in his war-crimes trial, Milosevic cast himself in the classic Serbian mold of victim and martyr.
At a news conference, Del Ponte said that whether Milosevic took his own life was still an open question. She said she expected doubts to be clarified by the autopsy and toxicological tests, but she also repeated her regret that Milosevic had died just as his trial was nearing an end.