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Poison claim over Milosevic death
Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic claimed the day before he was found dead that he was being poisoned.
Milosevic, 64, who was on trial for war crimes, was found dead in his prison cell at the UN detention centre near The Hague.
A UN spokesman said he had died of natural causes.
Milosevic's lawyer, Zdenko Tomanovic, said: "I informed the Russian embassy on behalf of Mr Milosevic about his claims that his health was being wilfully destroyed, and that this should be (investigated) by the Russians."
Tomanovic told reporters at The Hague that he had now filed an official request to the tribunal for the autopsy to be carried out in Moscow.
The death of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic does not absolve Serbia of responsibility to hand over war crimes suspects from the Balkan wars of the 1990s, the European Union said.
"Politically for Belgrade, the death of Milosevic does not alter in any way the need to come to terms with the legacy of the Balkan wars," said Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
Croatian President Stipe Mesic said: "It is pity he didn't live to the end of the trial to get the sentence he deserved."
The tribunal said Milosevic's family had been informed of his death.
His wife, Mirjana Markovic, who was often accused of being the power behind the scenes during her husband's autocratic rule in the 1990s, has been in self-imposed exile in Russia since 2003.
His son, Marko, also lives in Russia, and his daughter, Marija, lives in Serb-controlled half of Bosnia.
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Last updated: 11-Mar-06 21:55 GMT
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