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War Criminal Dies After 'Taking Poison' In Hague Courtroom

RFE/RL November 29, 2017

The United Nations court in The Hague has confirmed that a Bosnian Croat war crimes defendant died shortly after taking what he said was poison upon hearing his appeal of a 20-year sentence had been rejected.

A spokesman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Nenad Golcevski, told reporters that 72-year-old Slobodan Praljak died in a nearby hospital on November 29 despite efforts to save him.

There was no immediate information about the nature of the liquid he drank.

Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic earlier offered condolences to Praljak's family, saying at a press conference, "we have all unfortunately witnessed his act by which he took his own life."

Praljak, a former commander of Bosnian Croat forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina's 1992-95 war, was one of six Bosnian Croat defendants in court to hear rulings on the appeal of their sentences at the ICTY.

He appeared to take a drink moments after judges at the tribunal confirmed his 20-year sentence on appeal.

"Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal. I reject the verdict with disdain," he shouted.

Presiding Judge Carmel Agius quickly halted the November 29 hearing.

Police, an ambulance, and a fire engine could be seen outside the building and emergency rescue workers went into the court, while a helicopter hovered above the scene.

Agius had overturned some of Praljak's convictions but left his sentence unchanged.

Praljak, who was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment in 2013, was one of six former Bosnian Croat political and military leaders standing before the court.

Praljak was specifically charged with ordering the destruction of Mostar's 16th-century bridge in November 1993, which judges in the first trial had ruled "caused disproportionate damage to the Muslim civilian population."

The blown-up Ottoman-era bridge became a symbol of Bosnia's devastation in the war. It was later rebuilt, but Mostar saw the worst of the Croat-Muslim clashes, with nearly 80 percent of the city's east destroyed in the fighting.

But in their November 29 ruling, the judges actually allowed part of Praljak's appeal, saying the bridge had been a legitimate military target during the conflict. They also had overturned some of his convictions, but refused to reduce his overall sentence.

Besides Praljak, the other five defendants included Bosnian Croat leader Jadranko Prlic, who appealed his 25-year term imposed by the court in The Hague, and four others, who are also appealing long prison sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years.

The ruling on some of the 22 counts for which the six were sentenced was still due to be read.

Before the hearing was halted, Prlic had also had his 25-year jail term upheld.

Prlic had been found guilty of being part of a criminal enterprise by the wartime Croatian government of late President Franjo Tudjman, to create an ethnically pure state.

Judges upheld that key finding, despite Croatian officials having denounced it and calling for it to be overturned.

In Zagreb, state television announced that following the events in The Hague, President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic decided to cut short an official visit to Iceland, while the government called an emergency session.

Plenkovic, Croatia's prime minister, said that Praljak's action reflects the "deep moral injustice" done to the six Bosnian Croats whose sentences were upheld.

Tudjman's son, Miroslav, described Praljak's gesture as a "consequence of his moral position not to accept the verdict that has nothing to do with justice or reality."

The chairman of Bosnia's three-man presidency, Dragan Covic, a Bosnian Croat, said "this is not a court of justice, but a political one."

Bakir Izetbegovic, another member of Bosnia's presidency, expressed his condolences to the victims of war crimes during the conflict in the former Yugoslav republic.

"We will never forget neither the victims nor the criminals," he said. "This was the way to put the international seal on a dark side of the truth about the reasons for creating and the actions of Herceg-Bosna," the wartime statelet formed by Bosnian Croats.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo called the court's verdict an "important step toward holding to account those individuals responsible for the tremendous suffering of the people" of Bosnia.

It also urged all parties to respect the verdict, and "rededicate themselves to the continued reconciliation and peaceful coexistence essential to the future of a stable, secure" Bosnia.

The appeals hearing comes a week after the judges sentenced former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic to life in prison.

It marks the end of two decades of work by the court, set up in 1993 at the height of the Balkans conflicts to prosecute Europe's worst atrocities since World War II.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Balkan Service, AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/un-war-crimes-court- yugoslavia-final-verdict/28885760.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.