Arrest warrant issued for Milosevic's wife

A Serb court has asked police to reissue an arrest warrant for the widow of Slobodan Milosevic.

A Serb court has asked police to reissue an arrest warrant for the widow of Slobodan Milosevic.

Mira Markovic's warrant had been withdrawn to allow her attend her husband's funeral.

But Ms Markovic, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Russia for the past three years, did not show up for her husband's burial and failed to appear at a court hearing today.

She was charged in 2003 of abusing her power to get a flat for the family nanny.

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Milosevic's Socialist Party posted bail of €15,000 guaranteeing she would appear at the hearing if the court withdrew the arrest warrant and allowed her to return to Serbia for the funeral.

But a court statement said Ms Markovic did not appear and the bail money would be forfeit. "An arrest warrant will be re-issued against the accused," it added.

Milosevic died in his detention cell in the war crimes tribunal in The Hague on March 11th, over four years after the start of his trial on crimes committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s.

He was buried on Saturday in his hometown of Pozarevac without state honours and without the presence of any members of his family, including son Marko and daughter Marija.

The funeral was organised by his Socialist Party, but Ms Markovic pulled strings behind the scenes, telephoning from Moscow to dictate which television networks would be allowed to cover the grave site inside the family compound.