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Milosevic 'facing murder charges'
BELGRADE, Serbia -- Serbian police have filed charges against former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic on suspicion he incited the murder in 2000 of political ally-turned-foe, socialist-era President Ivan Stambolic, a government source said. They also filed charges Thursday against eight other people in the killing, including an ex-commander of a Milosevic-era police unit who is a prime suspect in last month's assassination of reformist Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, the source told Reuters. Police initially said Milosevic's wife, Mirjana Markovic, was also a suspect, but the charges did not mention her. It was the first time police in Serbia officially accused Slobodan Milosevic of involvement in such a serious crime. He is now standing trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague for genocide and other atrocities during the 1990s Balkan wars. During his bloodstained rule, the reformers who toppled him in October 2000 often accused Milosevic's secret service of being behind several high-profile killings and kidnappings, including that of Stambolic. Stambolic disappeared mysteriously while jogging in a Belgrade park in August 2000, shortly before Milosevic was ousted in a popular uprising. Police investigating Djindjic's murder found Stambolic's remains in a hilly region last month. Interior minister Dusan Mihajlovic, who heads the Serbian police force, said last month the aim had been to remove Stambolic, Serbia's president before Milosevic took over in the late 1980s, as a possible candidate in the following month's presidential election. They said he had been kidnapped and executed by five members of the Unit for Special Operations, a war-hardened police force set up under Milosevic, and that they had been arrested. Former state security chief Radomir Markovic, who was jailed in January for seven years for his role in another murder case involving a Milosevic opponent, was also charged in connection with the Stambolic killing, the government source told Reuters. "There is founded suspicion that Slobodan Milosevic... and Radomir Markovic... incited the carrying out of the murder," said the police charges, read out by the source. The Beta news agency said police filed the charges with the Belgrade district prosecutor's office, which will investigate the case before deciding whether to issue indictments. The source said police also filed charges against former special operations commander Milorad "Legija" Lukovic, an alleged gangster boss who is a key suspect in the killing of Djindjic. He is the only one of those charged in the Stambolic case not in custody. Djindjic infuriated nationalists in mid-2001 by sending Milosevic to The Hague tribunal. He had also vowed to crush the organized crime that flourished when Milosevic was in power. Police launched a crackdown on the underworld after he was gunned down in central Belgrade, detaining thousands of people. They say the powerful crime gang led by Lukovic killed Djindjic in a bid to stop his attempt to arrest its leaders and that it also aimed to bring down his reformist government and replace it with die-hard nationalists. Serbian police chief Sreten Lukic said separately Thursday that 40 gang members would soon be charged with the killing of Djindjic and with involvement in organized crime.
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