War criminal gets 20-year sentence from UN judge, stuns everyone by drinking poison in court

A former Croatian army chief died after denouncing his conviction as a war criminal and promptly drinking poison in front of stunned courtroom viewers.

As the United Nations judge upheld the 20-year sentence for his involvement in crimes during the Bosnian war of the 1990s, Slobodan Praljak drank from a small container and made his own declaration, according to NBC News.

“I just drank poison,” he said. “I am not a war criminal. I oppose this conviction.”

The hearing in the final case at the U.N.’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which was being broadcast on a video feed, had to be suspended as paramedics rushed in.

Judge Carmel Agius, who had overturned some of the convictions against Praljak, left the sentence unchanged, He was reading the verdict when the former Bosnian Croat military chief drank the poison.

The 72-year-old former general died in a Dutch hospital later, according to a tribunal spokesman, The New York Times reported.

“Mr. Praljak drank a liquid while in court, and quickly fell ill,” the court said in a statement.

Two other defendants facing the tribunal had committed suicide in the court’s detention cells before Praljak’ took his own life, according to the Times.

“Courtroom one is now a crime scene,” Aguis declared when the hearing resumed a few hours later, according to Sky News.

More from Sky News:

Praljak was convicted of involvement in a campaign to drive Muslims out of Bosnia and create an ethnically pure Croat state during the Bosnian war in the 1990s sparked by the break-up of Yugoslavia.

The conflict mainly saw Bosnian Muslims fighting Bosnian Serbs, but there were also deadly clashes involving Bosnian Muslims and Croats after an alliance fell apart.

A total of 100,000 people died and 2.2 million were displaced in the three-year war.

“We have all unfortunately witnessed his act by which he took his own life,” Croatian PM Andrej Plenkovic said.

The original trial, which began in April 2006, involved six Bosnian Croats who unsuccessfully appealed against their convictions, with sentences ranging from 10 to 25 years.

Established by the UN in 1993, the court is has indicted 161 suspects, of which 90 have been convicted.

Wake up right! Receive our free morning news blast HERE

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Frieda Powers

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

PLEASE JOIN OUR NEW COMMENT SYSTEM! We love hearing from our readers and invite you to join us for feedback and great conversation. If you've commented with us before, we'll need you to re-input your email address for this. The public will not see it and we do not share it.

Latest Articles