War criminal gulps poison in court suicide
A CONVICTED Bosnian Croat war criminal loudly asserted his innocence — and then imposed his own death penalty.
Ex-general Slobodan Praljak stunned a Netherlands courtroom Wednesday by chugging from a poison-filled vial after a judge upheld his 20-year sentence for murder and other crimes.
“Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal!” the white-bearded defendant shouted at the judge as he stood inside the court. “I reject, with contempt, your verdict!”
An interpreter then informed the court that Praljak, a former theater director, had just dramatically announced his impending death.
“That is poison that I drank,” said Praljak, dressed for a funeral in a white shirt, gray suit and tie.
Gasps filled the the United Nations court in The Hague, Netherlands, with Judge Carmel Agius quickly suspending the hearing as it aired live via the court’s website.
An ambulance rushed the dying man to a nearby hospital as a helicopter hovered above the courthouse.
Praljak died a short time later, after Agius confirmed the sentence for crimes committed during the 1992-95 civil war in his ethnically-divided homeland.
The suicide was particularly perplexing since Praljak had already served 13 years, putting him on the verge of release.
Most inmates are freed after serving two-thirds of their sentence.
The former philosophy professor and theater director became a military commander during the war, and surrendered to authorities in April 2004.
He was convicted nine years later for participating in the bloody effort to create a Croatcontrolled state in Bosnia by killing and deporting Muslims.
In addition to murder, Praljak was convicted of persecution and inhumane treatment.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic ripped the judge’s decision to uphold the verdicts at the hearing by the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia.
The suicide was Praljak’s parting “message” to Croatia that the court’s ruling was unjust, said Plenkovic.
Praljak and all had five co-defendants their sentences confirmed before his suicide brought the hearing to a shocking conclusion.
His case was one of the last to be decided at the tribunal prosecuting ethnic war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, the worst outbreak of violence in Europe since the end of World War II.
Part of Praljak’s command included the destruction of the Ottoman bridge in Mostar, an architectural wonder that was also essential to Muslim residents.
Two Serbs had previously committed suicide while in the custody of authorities investigating crimes related to the war — both in their prison cells.
Last week, the tribunal sentenced Gen. Ratko Mladic, the ethnic Serb and “Butcher of the Balkans,” to life in prison for genocide against Bosnian Muslims.