THE HAGUE - A defence witness in the mammoth trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was convicted of contempt of court and given a to four-month suspended sentence on Friday after he refused to testify at the UN war crimes court here when Milosevic was absent.
Kosta Bulatovic, a Kosovo Serb leader, refused to take the stand in April while Milosevic was out of court because doctors concluded he had dangerously high blood pressure which put him at risk for a heart attack.
"What (Bukatovic's) conduct amounted to was a determination and declaration that he would give evidence only on his own conditions ... He thus defied the authority of the court," the judges said in their decision, made public on Friday.
Although the court remarked that it would not normally sentence people who commit contempt of court to a suspended sentence it noted that Bulatovic has serious health problems.
The sentenced was suspended for a period of two years and will not take effect unless Bulatovic in that time commits another offence punishable with a prison sentence, the court said.
The trial of 63-year-old Milosevic has been interrupted more than a dozen times since it began in February 2002 because of his failing health.
He faces more than 60 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged key role in the 1990s wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.
He also faces separate genocide charges over the 1992-95 Bosnia war, which left 200,000 people dead, and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
05/13/2005 13:57 GMT