Russian jail term for Milosevic mooted to gauge opinion, says his brother

Russian jail term for Milosevic mooted to gauge opinion, says his brother
BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union (Political) - July 31, 2005, Sunday

Excerpt from report by Russian news agency Interfax

Moscow, 31 July: Reports that USA and the UK may agree to the ex-president of the former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, serving a prison sentence in Russia if convicted by the Hague tribunal, are a way of sounding out opinion, the former Yugoslavian leader's older brother, Borislav Milosevic, who lives in Moscow, told Interfax today.

"It seems to me this is a way of testing the water," Borislav Milosevic said.

In his opinion, the tribunal in The Hague is "preparing to speed up the trial of Slobodan Milosevic in an attempt to give a guilty verdict as soon as possible. Of course, if it manages to do this, this will be false, amoral and anti-Serb."

"But the trial is still continuing. It would be unacceptable from any point of view, including the legal point of view, to discuss a possible sentence, all the more so because many important people believe the trial has failed," Borislav Milosevic said.

Meanwhile, he does not exclude the possibility that his brother will be convicted. "This is just speculation, but the organizers of this trial fear instability in Serbia if Milosevic is convicted and therefore are now sounding out opinion and bringing Russia into the picture," the agency's source said.

He stressed that he doesn't take "all this seriously, because the trial in The Hague is not a trial at all but an international disgrace".