He was facing three indictments at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, one relating to atrocities carried out in Kosovo in 1999, another for crimes in Croatia between 1991 and 1992, and the third - and most serious - alleging genocide in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995.
The BBC News website outlines the charges Mr Milosevic was facing for alleged crimes in
Prosecutors at the war crimes tribunal accused Slobodan Milosevic of committing the following offences in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995:
"After the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995, almost all captured Bosnian Muslim men and boys, altogether several thousands, were executed"
The indictment said he was responsible for "the widespread killing of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats".
It cited the July 1995 massacre at Srebrenica, where "almost all captured Bosnian Muslim men and boys, altogether several thousands, were executed at the places where they had been captured or at sites to which they had been transported for execution".
It accused Mr Milosevic of involvement in the murder, imprisonment and subjection to inhumane living conditions and forced labour of "thousands of Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian Croat and other non-Serb civilians, including women and the elderly".
Mr Milosevic bore individual criminal responsibility for these atrocities, according to the indictment, because he "knowingly and wilfully" participated in a joint criminal enterprise in Bosnia, "while being aware of the foreseeable consequences of this enterprise".
For the full text of the Bosnia indictment and accompanying documents at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, click here
(click here to return)
Slobodan Milosevic was accused of committing the following offences in Croatia between 1991 and 1992:
Among the criminal charges relating to the war in Croatia, Mr Milosevic was held responsible for murders of hundreds of civilians and the expulsion of 170,000 non-Serbs from their home towns.
"Milosevic planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted the planning, preparation or execution of the persecution of the Croat and other non-Serb civilian populations"
It stated that he took part in a joint criminal enterprise for the "forcible removal of the majority of the Croat and other non-Serb population from the approximately one-third of the territory of the Republic of Croatia that he planned to become part of a new Serb-dominated state through the commission of crimes".
Mr Milosevic was accused of providing financial, material and logistical assistance to local Croatian-Serb bodies, including paramilitary groups, and of using the Serbian Government to create armed forces separate from the federal forces which could fight in Croatia.
For the full text of the Croatia indictment and accompanying documents at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, click here
(click here to return)
Mr Milosevic and four of his colleagues faced the following charges for actions in the province of Kosovo between January and June 1999:
According to the indictment, Mr Milosevic and his colleagues bore direct responsibility for crimes that are alleged to have included the deportation of 800,000 Kosovo Albanians and the murders of about 600 individually identified ethnic Albanians.
"The killings occurred in a widespread or systematic manner throughout the province of Kosovo and resulted in the deaths of numerous men, women, and children"
Kosovo is part of Serbia and Yugoslavia and former President Milosevic, as commander-in-chief of the Yugoslav army, had direct responsibility for the behaviour of the Serbian security forces in the province.
The other individuals charged for the crimes in Kosovo are the Serbian President, Milan Milutinovic, former Yugoslav deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, the Yugoslav army's former chief-of-staff, General Dragoljub Ojdanic, and former Serbian Minister of the Interior Vlajko Stojiljkovic.
For the full text of the Kosovo indictment and accompanying documents at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, click here
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