Sanctions against Slobodan Milošević, his family and associates lifted

The European Union decided on Tuesday to lift sanctions against former Yugoslav and Serbian president, war criminal Slobodan Milošević, who died in 2006, members of his family and people associated with his regime, reported europeonline-magazine.eu, as carried by the Bosnian news agency Patria.

The decision to freeze the assets of members of the Milošević family and others in EU countries was made in 2000.

The decision will be confirmed on Wednesday and will become effective once confirmed by EU ministers. This decision was made after it was assessed that the people subject to the sanctions no longer pose a threat, especially since Milošević died in 2006.

This decision is also linked to the current status of Serbia, which is a formal candidate for EU membership, after it concluded an agreement on normalising relations with Kosovo through the mediation of the EU.

Milošević, the text recalls, was indicted before the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. He died before his trial concluded.

With the termination of the EU decision, Milošević's private accounts will be opened, from which huge sums of money were withdrawn and deposited in Russia and Cyprus.