MAN COMMITS SUICIDE DURING U.N. TRIAL

Bosnian Croat war criminal drinks poison to defy verdict

DUTCH prosecutors are investigating how a Bosnian Croat war criminal managed to dramatically take his own life on Wednesday, apparently after drinking poison he had smuggled into a United Nations court, in scenes that were broadcast live.

In shocking footage beamed around the world, Slobodan Praljak drank from a small brown glass bottle and exclaimed he had taken poison, moments after UN judges upheld his 20-year jailterm for atrocities committed during the 1990s Balkans conflict.

The 72-year-old died in hospital after being rushed from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), casting a cloud over what should have been a successful end to the court’s tenure.

Prosecutors said their investigation would focus on what killed Praljak and whether he had received any outside help in obtaining the suspected poison.

“For the time being, the inquiry will focus on assisted suicide and violation of the Medicines Act,” the Public Prosecution Service said.

The unprecedented drama came as judges handed down their very last verdict at the court in the appeal case of six Bosnian Croat political and military leaders.

Praljak, a former military commander of a breakaway Bosnian Croat statelet, shouted out angrily: “Praljak is not a criminal. I reject your verdict.”

Standing tall, with a shock of white hair and beard, he then raised a small brown bottle to his lips, and tipped it into his mouth. The hearing was suspended as Praljak’s lawyer interjected: “My client says he has taken poison.”

ICTY spokesman Nenad Golcevski said Praljak “quickly fell ill” and died in hospital. He could not confirm what was in the bottle.

The stunning events caused a shockwave in Croatia and intense embarrassment at a war crimes tribunal that closes next month, more than two decades after being set up at the height of the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict.

Among the questions to be answered will be how he managed to evade tight security to smuggle the bottle into the tribunal.

Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic slammed the “injustice” of the UN tribunal and expressed his condolences.

“His act, which we all unfortunately witnessed today, speaks mostly about the deep moral injustice towards six Croats from Bosnia and the Croatian people.”

Praljak’s act demonstrated “what sacrifice he was ready to make” to show he was “not a war criminal”, said Dragan Covic, the Croat member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency.

“It is a humiliation of this institution.”

Late on Wednesday, candles were lit in the former breakaway statelet’s capital, Mostar, by Bosnian Croats and other residents in tribute to the late general.

It is not the first time that defendants have taken their own lives at the ICTY. Former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic killed himself in his cell at the UN detention centre in 2006, after another Croatian Serb, Slavko Dokmanovic, in 1998.

And former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic was found dead in his cell in 2006 from natural causes before his trial could be completed. AFP