Milosevic pleads not guilty

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Depressed, Imprisoned Milosevic Pleads Not Guilty April 1, 2001 4:48 pm EST

By Douglas Hamilton BELGRADE (Reuters) - Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, the central figure in a decade of Balkan wars, was arrested and jailed on Sunday after a 36-hour armed stand-off with the reformists who ousted him last year.

He pleaded not guilty to charges of diverting state funds and was remanded in custody in Belgrade's central prison for the customary 30-day investigation period.

A doctor examined the 59-year old one-time national hero and found him exhausted from the weekend ordeal with slightly elevated blood pressure, but otherwise in good health.

He was prescribed tranquilizers, his lawyer Toma Fila said.

Western governments welcomed the arrest as a first step toward bringing Milosevic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity on Kosovo ethnic Albanians.

"His arrest represents an important step in bringing to a close the tragic era of his brutal dictatorship," said U.S. President Bush, without revealing whether he would now certify Yugoslavia for a further $50 million in aid. U.N. Chief War Crimes Prosecutor Carla del Ponte said she expected to see him in the dock at The Hague "in a few months."

"It would suit me to see him in a few months time rather than tomorrow," she said, because a further indictment was being prepared for his alleged war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia.

NOT TO PLEASE OUTSIDERS

But Belgrade's reformists insisted the arrest, their most risky move since taking power last October, had been carried out purely so Milosevic can face domestic charges of abuse of office for stealing well over $100 million in state funds.

"The decision was made to start an investigation and the detention has been set for 30 days, as usual," lawyer Fila told reporters through the barred prison gates.

"He has special conditions...but that only means he has running hot and cold water. It is not a five star hotel," he added.

Milosevic's ominous vow never to be captured alive was just "something people say when they get emotional," Toma said. Milosevic knew that would also mean the deaths of a score of loyal bodyguards and so had surrendered peacefully.

"Milosevic said at the hearing that he was not guilty. Not under any single count on the charge sheet," Fila said, adding that Milosevic felt depressed by his treatment.

Serbian police found an arms cache and plans for an "uprising" in the Milosevic villa, according to B-92 radio.

It quoted an Interior Ministry source as saying they seized two armored personnel carriers, three sub-machine guns, one rocket propelled grenade launcher, two boxes of hand grenades, ammunition and over 20 pistols.

Milosevic's daughter Marija, reported to have fired shots as her father was finally taken away to jail, had a 9 mm Beretta, a 9 mm Walther and a "lady's pistol," the radio added.

CAME ALONG QUIETLY

An investigative judge will question Milosevic on the basis of the preliminary charges, which say he used four of his top aides to re-direct almost two billion Yugoslav dinars and foreign funds from 1994 to his ouster in October last year.

The arrest ended several days of drama, tension and confusion over the fate of the former president that included a shootout between black-clad masked police commandos and his own private guards during one of two failed attempts to grab him.

"Mr. Milosevic will enjoy all the rights granted to him by the law," said Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic. He must be brought to trial within six months and could face five to 15 years in prison if found guilty of the charges leveled against him.

"We can decide on extraditing Milosevic or any other Yugoslav citizen only after a law on cooperation with the Hague tribunal is passed," said Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic.

The drama began on Friday with two failed bids to take Milosevic into custody. The second attempt, an anti-terrorist style raid by masked commandos, produced a noisy gunbattle but no prisoner.

It played out as a U.S.-imposed deadline expired on Saturday night for Yugoslavia to show it was cooperating with the war crimes tribunal and embracing democracy or risk losing vital financial support from Washington.

Milosevic, after threatening he would never be taken alive, agreed following lengthy talks in the middle of the night to give himself up and went off to jail before dawn on Sunday.

The United States made clear that arresting Milosevic would help Belgrade get a favorable verdict. State Department officials said their decision would be revealed on Monday.

Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia said he was innocent of all charges. "The first act of a staged political trial has begun," party vice president Branislav Ivkovic said.



-- Anonymous, April 01, 2001


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