BELGRADE — Serbian doctors carried out tests on Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday after he was transferred to a hospital from his jail cell due to heart problems but his life is not in danger, his lawyer said.
Toma Fila said the ousted Yugoslav president, 59, arrested on April 1 for alleged corruption and abuses of power, underwent coronary examinations after he was taken to Belgrade's military medical academy late on Wednesday night.
A Serbian government source said Milosevic, who had suffered from high blood pressure recently, was under police guard at the hospital and this had been cleared by the army.
"Coronary tests have been done. Results (so far) show no life-threatening condition and he has never been in such a condition," Fila told Reuters. Milosevic had been hospitalized to prevent any possible risk to his life, he added.
Milosevic is also wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague for atrocities committed in Kosovo by Yugoslav troops under his command. But Belgrade's new reformist rulers have insisted that their priority is to try him at home.
He has denied all accusations against him.
Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic said he had authorized Milosevic's hospitalization but his condition was not grave.
"As far as I'm informed he was examined by a team of doctors...and the results are okay," Batic told reporters in parliament, without going into detail.
"It is not anything alarming," said Batic, a senior member of the governing democratic reform coalition (DOS) that trounced Milosevic in presidential elections last September.
Milosevic's refusal to acknowledge defeat triggered a popular uprising that drove him from office.
The official news agency Tanjug quoted a Belgrade District Court statement as saying Milosevic was suffering "acute heart problems." But it quoted Fila's office as saying Milosevic's condition would not affect the investigation against him.
After Milosevic's arrest, a doctor found him exhausted with slightly elevated blood pressure, but otherwise in good health.
Milosevic, blamed by the West for a decade of Balkan wars, was jailed after a 36-hour, armed stand-off with the reformers who toppled him after 13 turbulent years in power.
He was taken from Belgrade's central prison to the hospital at around 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Wednesday.
The independent Beta news agency earlier said Milosevic's condition had deteriorated during the evening.
BK Television said Milosevic's wife, Mirjana Markovic, who has been visiting him daily in prison following his arrest, had asked that her husband be taken to hospital.
Hours before the news that he had been hospitalized, Milosevic's Socialist Party called for him to be immediately released since he is "exposed to unbearable conditions which are threatening even his health."
In a statement, the party reiterated its demand that Milosevic be allowed to defend himself in freedom and that alleged "harassment" of his family should stop. Beta said senior party officials visited Milosevic in hospital before midnight.
Socialist Party vice president Branislav Ivkovic told reporters outside parliament on Thursday that the unjust accusations against Milosevic "hit him directly in the heart."