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Milosevic took the wrong drugs { March 13 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4801292.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4801292.stm
Last Updated: Monday, 13 March 2006, 12:38 GMT
Milosevic 'took the wrong drugs'
Drugs found in the body of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic may have neutralised treatment for his heart conditions, a toxicologist says.
Full test results are awaited but the comments of Dutch expert Donald Uges raised questions over what caused Mr Milosevic's death from a heart attack.
Mr Milosevic wrote a letter to Russia alleging he was being poisoned at The Hague war crimes tribunal.
The tribunal says Mr Milosevic received competent medical supervision.
Mr Milosevic was found dead in his cell at the UN tribunal on Saturday morning.
On Monday, his lawyer said he had asked Serbian authorities to allow the body to be returned to Belgrade for a funeral. Serbia has yet to respond.
'One-way ticket'
Mr Uges said he tested Mr Milosevic's blood two weeks ago because the former leader's blood pressure was not falling.
Mr Uges said rifampicin, a powerful antibiotic used to treat leprosy or tuberculosis, was found.
Rifampicin would neutralise the effects of heart drugs, he said.
However, the presence of rifampicin or other drugs has not yet been confirmed by the post-mortem toxicological tests - the results of which have still to be released.
Mr Milosevic's lawyer, Zdenko Tomanovic, has said the former president feared he was being poisoned.
But Mr Uges believed Mr Milosevic took rifampicin to get "a one-way ticket to Moscow" for treatment.
On Monday, the Russian foreign ministry said it had received a handwritten letter from Mr Milosevic days before his death complaining of "inadequate treatment by doctors" at The Hague.
In the letter he renewed his plea - rejected by the tribunal - for treatment in Moscow.
Sources close to the tribunal suggest Mr Milosevic may have deliberately mixed or missed the dosages for his bad heart and high blood pressure.
Charges
Mr Milosevic's body is to be released on Monday or Tuesday, said Mr Tomanovic.
He said he had asked the tribunal to allow Mr Milosevic's son Marko to collect the body.
Mr Milosevic's widow, Mirjana Markovic, earlier told Serbian newspaper Vecernje Novosti she had not decided on the location for the burial.
But she added: "If it was only up to me to decide it would be Pozarevac," Slobodan Milosevic's birthplace 80km (50 miles) east of the capital, Belgrade.
Mirjana Markovic is believed to live with Marko in Moscow and both could face charges should they return to Serbia.
Serbian President Boris Tadic has ruled out a pardon for them and said a state funeral for Mr Milosevic would be "completely inappropriate".
Mr Milosevic's daughter Marija had said he should be buried in Lijeva Reka - the family's ancestral home in Montenegro.
Authorities in Serbia and Montenegro fear a burial there could spark an embarrassing show of support from the former president's hardcore supporters.
But Mr Milosevic's Socialist Party said it would try to bring down Serbia's minority coalition government - which relies on its votes - if there were no funeral there.
Slobodan Milosevic was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged central role in the wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo during the 1990s.
He also faced genocide charges over the 1992-95 Bosnia war, in which 100,000 people died.
Preliminary results of an autopsy show he died of "myocardial infarction", the medical term for a heart attack.
Mr Milosevic had been suffering from two heart conditions, the report added, without naming them.
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