Mr Slobodan Milosevic was under close supervision in anisolation unit at a United Nations jail in TheHague today as he prepared to face his accusers at the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal for the first time next week.
For a man who threatened to shoot himselfin April rather that endure prison in Belgrade and who has a family history of depression and suicide, details emerging of the ex-president's departure from Serbia on Thursday painted a picture of defiance.
"Brother Serbs, farewell," a Yugoslav magazine quoted him as saying as he boarded a police helicopter on Thursday on the first stage of his journey. If convicted, it is likely to have been the arch-nationalist's last moment onhis beloved Serbian soil.
A special edition of Belgrade's well-connected Weekly Telegraftabloid carried pictures of the ousted Yugoslav president's departure - the first clear close-ups of him since Mr Milosevic was jailed in Belgrade in April- and described him as dignified and arrogant.
"You've got the wrong man," he told a UN official after he was read the indictment on charges of crimes against humanity. " NATO is the right address, they are the villains."
"The Hague tribunal is no court, it's apolitical circus set up to destroy the Serbian nation completely," added Mr Milosevic, tie-less and wearing a dark suit and white shirt, his familiar features staring straight at the camera.
Toppled in October after a decade of wars in which nearly a quarter of a million people died, Mr Milosevic was arrested on corruption charges in Yugoslavia in April. Belgrade's new reformist leaders finally handed him over to theUNtribunal on Thursday, helping unlock 1.28billion in aid conditionally offered byWesternnations.