[JURIST Europe] A Belgrade court has reinstated an arrest warrant against the widow of ex-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] after she failed to attend a court appearance [JURIST report] scheduled for Thursday. Mira Markovic [BBC profile] was charged with abuse of power when she obtained a flat for the family nanny. The court withdrew the outstanding arrest warrant [JURIST report] earlier this month at the request of Milosevic's Socialist Party, which sought Markovic's attendance at his funeral in his hometown of Pozarevac. The Party was able to raise enough money to post bail at 15,000 euros ($25,144) for Markovic and vouch for her return to Serbia. Markovic, a resident of Russia for the past three years, was not present at the funeral. The court ruled the bail money to be forfeited.

Milosevic died from heart failure [JURIST report] March 11 while in the fifth year of his genocide and war crimes trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website]. He was the first head of state to ever appear before an international war crimes court. Reuters has more.

Angela Onikepe is an Associate Editor for JURIST Europe, reporting European legal news from a European perspective. She is based in the UK.