Yugoslav war criminal reported dead after he ‘took poison’ to end UN court hearing

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Yugoslav war criminal reported dead after he ‘took poison’ to end UN court hearing

4:27 CAT | 29 Nov 2017

AP / Slobodan Praljak brings a bottle to his lips, during a Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands

A former Yugoslavia war criminal died after receiving a 20-year prison sentence from an international court and declaring he had drank poison, according to a report.

“Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal,” Slobodan Praljak said before throwing back his head with a small bottle of liquid, eliciting a gasp from a judge at the United Nations court in The Hague, Netherlands.

A lawyer for Praljak, a 72-year-old commander of ethnic Croatians during the 1990s war in Bosnia, said that his client had poisoned himself and emergency services rushed to the scene.

Judge Carmel Agius, who had urged the defendant to sit down, put a halt to the hearing as calls were made for an ambulance.

Serbian general convicted for genocide that killed 8,000 Muslims
Croatian state television reported Wednesday afternoon that Praljak, a film director before his military command, had died.

A spokesman for the tribunal had said earlier that he was still alive and receiving medical treatment.

A spokeswoman for police in The Hague confirmed to the Daily News that officers were called to the tribunal but had no comment on where Praljak was being treated or his condition.

He was appealing his punishment before Wednesday’s hearing confirmed his 20 year sentence for involvement in driving out Bosnian Muslims of a potential Bosnian Croat state.

Praljak had received a confirmation of his 20-year sentence.

Some of his convictions for actions in the later years of the conflict were overturned, but his sentence was not.

Praljak’s case was one of the last to be decided at a tribunal for ethnic war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, the worst outbreak of violence in Europe since the end of World War II.

Last week the tribunal sentenced Gen. Ratko Mladic, the ethnic Serb “Butcher of the Balkans” to life in prison for genocide against Bosnian Muslims.

A spokesman for the tribunal said before reports of Praljak’s death that proceedings would continue Wednesday afternoon for the three defendants who had not yet received their verdicts.

Source: New York Daily News