Belgrade, 2 July 2023 (dpa/MIA) - The former president of Serbia, Milan Milutinović, died on Sunday at the age of 81, his party colleague Ivica Dačić, leader of the Socialist Party (SPS), announced on his Instagram profile.

Dačić is the current foreign minister as well as deputy prime minister of Serbia.

Milutinović held office as president of the then constituent state of Serbia within the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2002.

He was considered a close associate of Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milošević (1941-2006), who was indicted for war crimes.

Milutinović was also indicted by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague in 1999.

In 2003, Milutinović surrendered to The Hague tribunal and was acquitted of all charges in 2009.

Photo: Instagram