Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic denied today he ever stole government money to enrich himself or finance political crimes, but acknowledged his regime secretly funded and armed breakaway Serb forces in Bosnia and Croatia.
In a two and a half page written appeal against his 30-day prison remand, which appeared to outline his defence should he go to trial, he suggested there might be classified documentary proof of the secret transfers.
In his view, "such matters were still state secrets", he said, but "judicial bodies could, of course, check them".
Mr Milosevic, imprisoned yesterday to face charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy, wrote his own appeal against his detention.
Copies were distributed by his lawyer, Mr Toma Fila, whose own formal appeal to free his client pending a trial was not made public.
There was no mention, by Milosevic or the indictment he was answering, of international charges of crimes against humanity.
Mr Milosevic was arrested after an armed stand-off between police and private guards at his official Belgrade residence. He has also been charged with organising the men who tried to shoot it out with arresting officers.
The indictment alleged embezzlement of state customs dues between 1994 and October 2000, when Mr Milosevic fell from power. But Mr Milosevic said the reason some items did not appear in state budgets was because they were state secrets.
Regarding the funds spent on weapons and ammunition and other needs of the Bosnian Serb Republic Army and Croatian Serb Republic Army, those expenditures could not, for reasons of state secrecy, be presented in the budget, which is a public document, Mr Milosevic said.
He also said he did not believe top aides stole from government coffers to finance his Socialist Party of Serbia.