The Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal is to hold an internal inquiry into the death this weekend of a top suspect, the second in just over a month.
The announcement by the tribunal yesterday coincided with contradictory comments by lawyers as to whether the ailing Bosnian Serb, Mr Milan Kovacevic, received proper medical attention.
Mr Kovacevic (57) died in his cell on Saturday morning of a heart attack. He was the only suspect on trial for genocide. "All aspects of the death will be looked into," tribunal spokesman Mr Christian Chartier told Reuters.
One of Mr Kovacevic's lawyers said tribunal officials had failed to give adequate medical treatment to his client, who had a history of health problems.
"Kovacevic died because the tribunal had not provided the necessary medical assistance he had asked for the previous day," Mr Igor Pantelic was quoted as saying in Serbia's Politika Exspres newspaper. "The defence had warned last July of Kovacevic's deteriorating health."
However, another of Mr Kovacevic's lawyers said he spoke to his client the night before his death. Mr Kovacevic was in a good mood after what he deemed a robust and successful defence during the first two weeks of the trial, Mr Dusan Vucicevic was quoted as saying by another Serbian newspaper, the Dnevni Telegraf.
"There are no indications Kovacevic was physically abused," he said. A prison doctor had given him medication on Friday evening.
The Dutch government will also conduct an inquest into the death, following normal procedure, the tribunal has said.
Mr Kovacevic died shortly after the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia released a report on the recent suicide of another prominent suspect. On June 29th the former Serb mayor of Vukovar, Slavko Dokmanovic, hanged himself in his cell in the tribunal's detention centre near The Hague as judges were considering their verdict.
The internal inquiry exonerated officials at the jail from any blame, saying all rules concerning safety and security were observed. But Dokmanovic's defence lawyer said he had warned court officials that his client might kill himself, and the Yugoslav government said it held the tribunal responsible for the death.
Dokmanovic had maintained he was innocent of complicity in one of the most notorious incidents of the Yugoslav war - the massacre of more than 200 hospital patients in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar.
A former hospital director, Mr Kovacevic was accused of helping set up camps in the Prijedor region of northwestern Bosnia in which Muslims and Croats were raped, tortured and killed.