A long-time opponent of late autocratic Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic has attacked the late strongman's grave in a bid to "expel evil spirits," reports said Monday.
Miroslav Milosevic, a photographer not related to the late president, jumped a fence in his hometown of Pozarevac to thrust a hawthorn pole into the tomb where he was buried a year ago, the MTSMondo.com website said.
The action by the former member of Otpor, the student movement that for years protested against Milosevic, was a medieval ritual used in eastern Serbia to kill off vampires or expel evil spirits.
Miroslav Milosevic said his "performance" had been planned for March 11, on the first anniversary of the former president's death, the website reported.
"But I wanted to avoid conflicts with his supporters who might be visiting the grave on Saturday," Milosevic was quoted as saying.
Milosevic then called the police to confess his action, but "they did not pay any attention," he said.
The late strongman's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) condemned the move as "vandalism" and urged police to protect Milosevic's grave in the yard of his family house in Pozarevac, some 70 kilometres (40 miles) east of Belgrade.
"This is a shame and this crazy man should be in prison for desecrating the burial site of a great statesman," SPS official Milutin Mrkonjic was quoted as saying.
Police were not available to comment.
Milosevic, who ruled Serbia in 1990s, died on March 11 last year while on trial before The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
He was facing charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity over his role in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, as well as genocide for his involvement in Bosnia's 1992-1995 conflict.
