The former Yugoslav president, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, could face the death penalty if charged and convicted of ordering political assassinations during his years in power. Although he was imprisoned at the weekend over allegations of corruption and embezzlement, the range of charges against him has been gradually widening since then.
Additional charges have already been filed claiming that he incited bodyguards to shoot at the police sent to arrest him at his Belgrade villa.
The Interior Minister of Serbia, one of Yugoslavia's component republics, Mr Dusan Mihajlovic, said much more serious charges were under consideration.
Speaking on a visit to Vienna, Mr Mihajlovic said there were "indications that Slobodan Milosevic was involved in severe criminal acts for which the death penalty is provided". In a moment of black humour, he said the former Yugoslav leader might prefer to face the United Nations-sponsored war crimes tribunal in The Hague because it had no authority to impose the death penalty. The new Yugoslav administration has been resisting demands from the international community that Mr Milosevic be transferred to The Hague. His successor, President Vojislav Kostunica, said somewhat cryptically yesterday that he would only co-operate with the tribunal if it did not mean compromising national dignity.
He pointed out that current Yugoslav law gave no authority to extradite Mr Milosevic. He also accused the UN tribunal of "selective justice" in failing to indict leaders of other former Yugoslav republics "and even the leaders of NATO" for the 1999 bombing of his country. "If that would come about, we could start thinking about the validity of co-operation with the Hague tribunal," Mr Kostunica said.
Meanwhile, Serbia's prime minister, Mr Zoran Djindjic, predicted in a Boston Globe interview that within two months Mr Milosevic would be charged with ordering the murders of personal and political enemies. He also expected the former president's wife, Mirjana, to be charged with murder.
In a defiant statement from Belgrade's Central Prison, Mr Milosevic condemned his arrest as "politically staged".
He denied diverting state funds for his personal use but admitted for the first time that missing funds were used to buy "weapons, ammunition and other needs" for the Bosnian-Serb and Croatian Serb forces in the 1990s. "These expenses could not, as a state secret, be accounted for in the state budget," he said. The Yugoslav authorities say he stole the equivalent of $390 million.
The Hague tribunal has indicted Mr Milosevic for crimes against humanity arising from his offensive against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999.
Tribunal staff said they were preparing further indictments for atrocities, including genocide, committed in Bosnia and Croatia.
Three of the former leader's bodyguards have been detained arising from incidents at the time of his arrest. In addition, his personal security chief has been accused of plotting an "armed rebellion" against the Kostunica government. In the aftermath of the arrest, the US lifted a threat to suspend $50 million in aid to Belgrade. However, Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell warned that any stalling over the transfer of the former leader to The Hague could result in a withdrawal of US support for an international donors' conference aimed at rebuilding Yugoslavia's war-damaged economy and infrastructure.
AFP adds: The US and Europe accept that Mr Milosevic should be tried at home and only the UN tribunal in The Hague thinks otherwise, the Serbian Prime Minister said yesterday. In an interview with Vienna's daily Die Kurier, Mr Djindjic emphasised the difficulties involved in finding evidence that would implicate Mr Milosevic in war crimes, as he defended putting him on trial in Belgrade.
"The US as well as Europe accept that this trial should take place in our own country - only the tribunal doesn't," said Mr Djindjic.