SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC had regular access to unprescribed drugs that were smuggled into his cell under a lax prison regime, sources at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague said yesterday.

Timothy McFadden, the prison governor responsible for Milosevic, who died of a heart attack in prison on Saturday, is reported to have complained in December and January that he could no longer monitor drugs taken by the former leader. His warnings went unheeded.

The indicted war criminal had the key to his own office, which had a fax machine, a computer and a telephone, and access to a private “comfort room” for visits by his wife. He was allowed to receive guests, including his legal representatives, who were frisked and sent through airport-style metal detectors, but they were not body-searched.

A source close to the tribunal said: “He was not in prison — he was in touch with the world. It is very difficult to avoid this when someone has not been sentenced, is on trial and has to have access to lawyers. You can’t stop that.”

Milosevic’s remains are expected to be flown today to Belgrade, although it was still unclear last night where he would be buried. Milosevic’s son, Marko, arrived in the Netherlands yesterday to collect the body with a team of Russian doctors, claiming that his father had been murdered. “He didn’t die, he got killed. There is a murder,” he said on arrival from Moscow, where he is living in self-imposed exile.

The family had initially considered holding a temporary burial in Moscow, but early yesterday a Serbian court lifted an arrest warrant for Mira Markovic, Milosevic’s widow, removing the last obstacle to a funeral on Serbian soil.

Dr Markovic, who also lives in exile in Moscow, faces charges of abuse of power in her homeland. The Serbian Government said that the funeral could be held in Belgrade, but the court insisted that Dr Markovic would have to surrender her passport on arrival.

After a day of confusion, the formal announcement was made simultaneously last night by the family lawyer in The Hague and by Milorad Vucelic, Vice President of the Socialist Party of Serbia: “The decision has been reached to organise a dignified funeral for our late president.” Mr Vucelic said.

The authorities in Belgrade have ruled out a state funeral.

The post-mortem examination found that Milosevic died of a heart attack, but the results of toxicology tests have not been released.

Two weeks before Milosevic died a Dutch toxicologist confirmed the presence of the unprescribed drug rifampicin, normally used to treat leprosy and tuberculosis, in the blood of the former leader.

The trial judges were informed last Tuesday and, on Wednesday, they demanded that Milosevic’s lawyers should explain what was happening. On Friday Milosevic wrote a letter to the Russian Foreign Minister, complaining that he was being poisoned by rifampicin, and he died the next day.

Carla del Ponte, the UN chief prosecutor, who expressed her fury that Milosevic had evaded justice, said: “He was the one who decided that his state of health should deteriorate. He was secretly taking medicine.” A tribunal official refused to comment on the allegations. However, authorities have ruled out poisoning by a third party. They believe that Milosevic was voluntarily taking rifampicin, to neutralise the effects of the heart medicine that he was required to take, as part of his campaign to persuade the judges that his health was so poor that he should be allowed to travel to Moscow for treatment. Prison doctors had established in 2004 that Milosevic was secretly taking drugs.

The tribunal judges concluded the four-year trial at a two-minute hearing yesterday. The verdict against Milosevic, who was facing 66 charges of war crimes, was due in the next few months.

A source close to the tribunal said: “I don’t believe he ever intended to serve a conventional prison sentence. The strategy he took was very clever. It is perfectly possible that he was told: ‘Take these drugs. They won’t kill you but they will extend the trial.’ But he was never going to be worried that he might die of a heart attack.”

TRIAL BY NUMBERS

When the trial began the tribunal had a $96 million budget, this has grown to $276,474,100 for 2006-07

Explore Law

• Columnists

• Law Panel

• Law Reports

• Student Law

Times Recommends

• The best legal yarns this Christmas
• Legal school 'earned £1m by exploiting bar course'
• Axe may fall on 5,000 more City lawyers