A lawyer representing Slobodan Milosevic has filed a suit against the Serbian government for transferring the former strongman to the UN war crimes tribunal, Tanjugnews agency reported today.
Momo Raicevic, one of the lawyers defending Mr Milosevic against charges of financial misdealing, accused Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and 13 members of his cabinet of "abusing the power and being accomplices in the kidnapping of the former Yugoslav president."
Mr Milosevic was transferred to The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on June 28th from the Belgrade prison, where he had been detained since April 1st for abuse of power and embezzlement.
Mr Djindjic's government agreed to hand over Mr Milosevic, indicted by the ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 1998-99 Kosovo war, after Yugoslav authorities had vetoed his transfer.
The handover has sparked a crisis in Yugoslavia, with Mr Milosevic's successor President Vojislav Kostunica denouncing the transfer as an "illegal act."
Mr Milosevic has refused a lawyer since his arrest, preferring to defend himself before the UN war crimes tribunal.
Mr Raicevic said he had filed two suits against the Serbian government, one in his name and the other in the name of a newly-formed non-governmental group "Freedom for the world of the free and equal."
The group said it would meet every day in front of the US embassy in Belgrade and collect signatures for a petition demanding the release of Mr Milosevic and shutting down the ICTY.
Meanwhile, Mr Milosevic marked his 60th birthday today in a war crimes detention centre in The Hague with his wife and grandson, stripped of the power, privilege and prestige he enjoyed during his 13-year rule.
Birthdays at the height of his power were marked by telegrams from loyal aides read out on state television. Today he was brought several gifts by his wife and family, lawyer Mr Dragoslav Ognjanovic told reporters.
"He feels very well. He is happy to be with his grandson. There is personal, direct contact. They can hug and kiss each other. There are many gifts from family and friends," said Mr Ognjanovic, one of a nine-strong legal team defending Mr Milosevic at home on corruption charges.
Two UN officials were in the visiting room with Mr Milosevic, his wife Ms Mira Markovic, two-year-old grandson Marko Milosevic and daughter-in-law Ms Milica Gajic when they went to see him at Scheveningen prison at the weekend, he said.
Spouses visiting the detention centre can typically expect to be provided with rooms for conjugal visits, dubbed intimacy rooms .
"Milosevic, accused of responsibility for the deportation and killing of ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo in 1999, was a proud grandfather and family man," Mr Ognjanovic said.
"They are a very close family. Of course they love each other very much. He adores his grandson like every single grandfather," he added.
Reuters, AFP