THE HAGUE, March 14 (RIA Novosti) - A group of Russian cardiologists has arrived in The Hague to study the autopsy report of Slobodan Milosevic, a source said Tuesday.
The Health Ministry earlier said the group from the Bakulev Institute, Russia's leading cardiology center, comprised prominent doctor Leo Bokeriya, two experts, and Russia's chief pathologist Oleko Mishnev.
Zdenko Tomanovic, a Serbian lawyer for the former Yugoslavian leader, said he would discuss further steps with the delegates in the Russian Embassy shortly after their arrival.
According to Russian diplomatic sources, the doctors went to The Hague at the request of Milosevic's relatives, in particular, his brother Borislav.
Milosevic, 64, who was on trial for war crimes and genocide at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, was found dead in his cell in the tribunal's prison March 11. Preliminary reports suggest he died of a heart attack.
A spokeswoman for the tribunal, Alexandra Milenov, said it was no longer within its competence to decide whether the Russian experts could be allowed to participate in a toxicological examination of Milosevic's body. She said it would be up to the deceased leader's family, which lives in Moscow, and the authorities in the Netherlands.
The Dutch Justice Ministry said earlier the relatives would be allowed to take Milosevic's body.
The Russian doctors flew to The Hague after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that Moscow had the right to question the preliminary autopsy results, as Russia had been ready to offer the former president of Yugoslavia medical treatment in December 2005, but the proposal was rejected amid fears that Milosevic would flee his trial.
