14 DAY TRIAL // 52-year-old Branislav Milinkovici, Serbian Ambassador to NATO, committed suicide in an airport parking lot in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday, December 4.
Although his death is now being ruled a suicide, it was originally registered as an accident. "We can be sure that it was a suicide, therefore we are not investigating any further," a spokesman for Brussels prosecutor's office says.
Milinkovici ended his life by leaping 10 meters (30 feet) from a platform in the Brussels airport parking facility. He had strayed from a group that was at the airport to meet a Serbian delegation. Zoran Vujic, Serbia's assistant foreign minister for security policy, was by his side at the time.
According to Trend, Jan van der Cruysse, a spokesperson for the Zaventem airport, describes that the he fell “several floors” in the parking lot.
“Our fire department and doctors were immediately there ... It seemed that this person could not be helped anymore,” he adds.
An unnamed official explained that Milinkovici displayed no signs that he would resort to this desperate gesture, even describing his good mood.
“I met with him [Milinkovic] yesterday afternoon, I didn’t notice anything strange, he seemed in a perfectly good mood. [...] I knew him well, this doesn’t make any sense, it’s totally inexplicable,” he is quoted by Russia Today as saying.
Serbia is not currently a member of NATO; however, has been represented there by a mission since 2010. Milinkovici served as the country's ambassador to NATO since then.
Secretary-General for NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is among the many dignitaries to express their sorrow over the unfortunate incident.
“[I am] deeply saddened by the tragic death of the Serbian ambassador,” he states, according to a report by NY Daily News.