After his presidential term expired in December 2002, he surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia where he was tried for war crimes.

[4] From 1969 to 1971, he was a Member of the Presidency of the Yugoslav Socialist Youth Union, and, from 1974 to 1977 Secretary for Ideology of the City Committee of the League of Communists of Belgrade.

His comparative research on higher education systems in Europe was published in his book, University-Eppur si Muove: University Reform-between Tradition and the Future (Belgrade, 1985).

[8] During his term as Foreign Minister, he also signed several agreements between Yugoslavia and its neighbour Croatia aimed at normalizing relations between the two countries.

However, Milutinović was part of the Yugoslavian government's negotiation group in the Rambouillet Agreement in 1999, a prelude to the NATO campaign against Yugoslavia.

[8] After Milošević and his party were ousted in October 2000 and their political power marginalized on federal, republic and most local levels, Milutinović still remained in office, as his term did not end until 2002.

His powers as the president were trivialized from 2000 to 2002, since his political affiliation did not enjoy popular support and he could not be backed up by any other government branch.

At the same time, Milutinović did not enjoy the support of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, as he in turn was considered, by most of its members, as a close ally of Milošević.

According to the indictment, during wartime his de jure powers were extended to ones belonging to the Parliament during peacetime, including control of the police, subordinate to the Army at the time.

[citation needed] The ICTY Prosecution also claimed that Milutinović, as the President of Serbia, had de facto influence over the Parliament, the Army and the police (Ministry of Internal Affairs).

Judge Iain Bonomy blamed Slobodan Milošević for the alleged crimes, and said that Milutinović was "not a key player in the ruling political party.