UN war crimes suspect died after drinking poison in court

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Croatian state TV reported that a commander of Bosnian Croat forces during the Balkan war died after drinking poison during a hearing at the UN war crimes tribunal on Wednesday, at which his 20-year prison sentence was upheld.

Slobodan Praljak, 72, tilted back his head and took a swing from a flask or glass as the judge read out the verdict.

"My client says he drank poison this morning," his defense attorney Natasa Faveau-Ivanovic said.

After drinking, Praljak told the court: "I am not a war criminal, I oppose this conviction."

Slobodan Praljak take poison in court at The Hague, November 29, 2‍017. /ICTY Photo

The presiding judge suspended the hearing and called for a doctor.

Dutch police has declared the courtroom a crime scene.

It was the last judgment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), established by the United Nations in 1993, before it closes next month.

The last judgement

Six former Bosnian Croat political and military leaders, including Praljak, appeared in court on Wednesday to learn their fate as UN judges handed down their final verdict for war crimes committed during the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia.

The appeals judgment in the case of Jadranko Prlic and five others will draw the curtain on two decades of work by the International Criminal Court of the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), set up in 1993 at the height of the Balkans wars to prosecute Europe's worst atrocities since World War II.

Ex-Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic appears in court at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, November 22, 2017. /Reuters Photo

It comes a week after the judges imposed a life sentence on former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, whose ruthlessness in the conflict earned him the title the "Butcher of Bosnia."

Prlic, the former "prime minister" of a breakaway statelet, and his five co-defendants were found guilty in 2013 on 26 charges of taking part in a scheme to remove Bosnian Muslims "permanently and create a Croatian territory," which included the southern city of Mostar besieged for nine months.

Prlic, 58, who led the "Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna", has appealed his 25-year term imposed by the court in The Hague.

Former Bosnian Croat leader Jadranko Prlic in the cour‍troom in 2013. /AFP Photo

While the five others are also appealing long prison sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years.

The bloody 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, in which 100,000 people died, and 2.2 million were displaced, mainly pitted Bosnian Muslims against Bosnian Serbs but also saw some brutal fighting between Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats after an initial alliance fell apart.

Massive crimes

The bald and bespectacled Prlic, who vehemently denied the charges, told the court in March his trial represented "a dark side of international justice."

He said he "was not part of the chain of command" of the main Bosnian-Croat army in Bosnia, the HVO.

Mothers of victims pose with banners before the trial of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic before a court at the International Criminal Court of the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, November 22, 2017. /Reuters Photo

But Croatian communities needed to organize themselves, militarily as well, as the Bosnian Republic had not defended them.

The prosecution has also appealed the sentences, urging judges to impose 40-year terms on Prlic and three of his co-defendants, saying the "crimes were massive in scale."

Ratko Mladic (C) arrives at Sarajevo airport, August 10, 1993. /AFP Photo

"Tens of thousands of Muslims were evicted from their homes... thousands were arrested and detained in awful conditions," said prosecutor Barbara Goy. "Muslims were killed during attacks or when forced to work on the front-lines. They were raped, they were sexually assaulted. Muslim houses and mosques were destroyed," she said.

Mostar Bridge

Prlic's co-defendants are former defense minister Bruno Stojic, 62, and four other military officials: Slobodan Praljak, 72, Milivoj Petkovic, 68, Valentin Coric, 61, and Berislav Pusic, 65.

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

Fireworks were set off in Mostar in 2004 to inaugurate a replica of the 16th-century bridge destroyed in 1993 during the conflict that tore the country apart. /AFP Photo

The bridge was rebuilt in 2004. The statelet, backed by government of Croatian nationalist leader Franjo Tudjman, was formally dismantled in 1996 as part of the peace deal that ended the war.

But the "president" of Herceg-Bosna, Mate Boban, died in 1997 and Tudjman in 1999, leaving Prlic the highest-ranking Bosnian Croat official to face judgment for the crimes.

After the war, Prlic went on to become Bosnia's foreign minister from 1996 to 2001 and tried to present himself as a moderate, founding an unsuccessful pro-European party.

A placard depicting former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic is seen in Nevesinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, November 8, 2017. /Reuters Photo

The ICTY charged him and his co-defendants in 2004. As Croatia came under pressure to comply with the court as part of the conditions for joining the European Union, the six surrendered, and their trial opened two years later.

Wednesday's verdict marks the last time the ICTY judges will hand down a judgment with the court to close on December 31, having indicted and dealt with 161 people.

Appeals, such as for former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, sentenced last year to 40 years, will be dealt with a new tribunal known as the MICT in the same building in The Hague.

Source(s): AP ,AFP ,Reuters