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Po?arevac (Serbia) (AFP)

The ashes of Mirjana Markovic, the widow of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, were on Saturday buried in Serbia along with her late husband.

Dozens of people -- but no close family -- attended the service which was conducted by a Serbian Orthodox priest in eastern Pozarevac.

A black urn containing the ashes were buried in the grave where Milosevic was buried following his death in The Hague in 2006. She died in Russia on April 14 at the age of 76.

In 2003, Markovic -- a former sociology professor who was known to have a huge influence on her husband -- left Serbia, where she was charged with abuse of power and was suspected of cigarette smuggling and political assassination.

Russia granted both her and her son Marko Milosevic political asylum in 2008 after Serbia issued an international arrest warrant for them in connection with the alleged cigarette smuggling.

Milosevic died in a prison cell in March 2006 while on trial for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity before the UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague for his key role in the 1990s wars that tore the Balkans apart.

? 2019 AFP