Milosevic’s wife threatened with arrest over corruption trial News
Milosevic’s wife threatened with arrest over corruption trial

[JURIST] A new arrest warrant could be issued for the wife of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] if she fails to appear for the start of her corruption trial in Belgrade, a court spokesperson said Wednesday. Mirjana Markovic [Wikipedia profile] fled to Russia in 2003 in the face of an international warrant for her arrest. The warrant was revoked in June [JURIST report] on the condition that Markovic appear for her trial. Markovic's defense lawyer would not say whether she was planning to return from Russia. Markovic has often been called a driving force behind her husband's autocratic rule throughout the 1990s, and she has been charged with illegally giving away government-owned luxury apartments. Investigators have also sought to question her in connection with the 2000 killing of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic. AP has more.

1:15 PM ET – Serbian Judge Sinisa Sofrenovic ordered Markovic's arrest Thursday after she failed to appear in court. Markovic's lawyer said during the hearing that "the judge's decision was against the law." AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.