Milosevic's daughter says she fired gun 'in despair'

The daughter of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic yesterday denied charges that she had endangered others by firing a pistol when he was arrested in April.

Marija Milosevic, 32, is on trial accused of public endangerment and illegal possession of a gun, which carry a maximum sentence of three years. "I fired into the sky," she said. "I emptied my pistol out of despair."

Prosecutors say she opened fire when government officials came to take her father to prison to face corruption charges. The arrest ended a 26-hour police siege at Mr Milosevic's villa in Belgrade. Ms Milosevic later told reporters she was "distraught about her father being taken away" and that she had drunk a bottle of cognac on an empty stomach before firing.

She had a licence for the gun she used but, prosecutors said, she was also carrying a second firearm, an unlicenced revolver. Ms Milosevic said yesterday she had handled three pistols that night. She had permits for two, she said, and picked up the third by mistake. It belonged to her father.

Ms Milosevic said she had mixed several sedatives with the cognac, and she was distressed after seeing live television footage of the siege. "I saw men with masks on their heads; I thought they were headhunters, coming to get my father." Psychiatrists told the court she had acted while "mentally imbalanced".

One witness, Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, a high-ranking official from Mr Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, testified that she saw Ms Milosevic fire the gun. The trial was adjourned until March, and more witness are being summoned.

Mr Milosevic also has a son, Marko. During the former president's 13-year rule in Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, both children enriched themselves using their father's influence. Ms Milosevic owned a TV and radio station and a disco, and the son was involved in business deals critics said were shady. He fled the country after Mr Milosevic's fall.

The former president is in The Hague, awaiting trial at the UN tribunal over war crimes in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia.

¿ The chief Kosovo administrator for the United Nations, the former Danish defence minister Hans Haekkerup, has resigned for personal reasons. Mr Haekkerup, 56, will be leaving when his contract expires at the end of this year, a UN spokesman said.