Slobodan Milosevic, jailed in the Netherlands, receives his Belgrade villa back

Slobodan Milosevic purchased the above-mentioned villa two days before NATO started bombing Yugoslavia

The Supreme Court of Serbia cancelled the decision of the first instance court to confiscate Slobodan Milosevic's villa situated in a prestigious district of Belgrade.

”We did not even consider the question of to which extent the decision has been substantiated legally. Our resolution was made only because of the defendant's current imprisonment, which deprives him of the possibility to defend himself at court (on the case regarding the villa),” a spokesperson for the Serbian Supreme Court told the Blic newspaper (Serbia).

Slobodan Milosevic purchased the above-mentioned villa two days before NATO started bombing Yugoslavia in March 1999. The national legal authorities filed a criminal case later on the allegation of illegal acquisition of the villa, Interfax reports.

Milosevic is currently jailed in the Netherlands, where the Milosevic trial takes place. Overthrown in 2000 as a result of the coup, Slobodan Milosevic was extradited according to the international order. The hearings have been continuing for three years, although it was originally supposed that the process would not last longer than two years. The former president's poor state of health interrupts the litigation from time to time. Slobodan Milosevic suffers from periodical rise of blood pressure, fatigue and flu.

Milosevic was put on trial for war crimes, which he supposedly committed in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia during Yugoslavia's collapse. Milosevic has also been charged of genocide and crimes against humanity committed in 1991-1999 during bloody conflicts in former Yugoslavia. Prosecutors believe that the crimes were committed during the creation of “Great Serbia,” which eventually resulted in the elimination of almost 250,000 citizens of Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Kosovo.

Slobodan Milosevic has been charged of committing 66 crimes.