Tests show Milosevic took wrong drugs before death

THE HAGUE, Mar 13 (Reuters) Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who had wanted to go to Russia for medical treatment, took drugs that worsened his health before dying in his prison cell, a Dutch medical expert said today.

Groningen University toxicologist Donald Uges told Reuters he thought Milosevic, whose body was released for burial after an autopsy and toxicology tests, had taken the drugs to improve his case for going to Russia, where his wife and son live.

Milosevic, 64, who suffered from a heart condition and high blood pressure and was found dead in bed in his cell on Saturday, faced a possible life sentence in his war crimes trial at the Hague tribunal.

''I don't think he took his medicines for suicide, only for his trip to Moscow ... that is where his friends and family are. I think that was his last possibility to escape The Hague,'' Uges said. ''I am so sure there is no murder.'' Uges said tests he conducted two weeks ago on Milosevic's blood showed traces of rifampicin -- a drug against leprosy and tuberculosis that would have neutralised other medicines.

A preliminary autopsy report yesterday showed Milosevic died of a heart attack, but toxicology tests were still under way to establish its cause. His lawyer said Milosevic's son Marko would come to take the body to Belgrade for burial.

Milosevic's widow, brother and son all live in Russia. His wife Mira Markovic risks arrest if she returns to Serbia. Last month, the tribunal rejected a request by Milosevic to be allowed to travel to Moscow for specialist medical care.

His lawyer said Milosevic feared he was being poisoned and wrote to Russia the day before he died asking for help.

''The central issue is whether or not Mr. Milosevic was receiving the proper medical treatment,'' he told journalists.

The man branded the ''Butcher of the Balkans'' had been on trial for four years on charges on 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes involving conflicts in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo that tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s.

AUTOPSY The autopsy on Milosevic was conducted by Dutch scientists and attended by Serbian pathologists. Serbia said the autopsy was very professional and the whole procedure was filmed.

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