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AFP
THE HAGUE
IN SHOCKING scenes, a Bosnian Croat war criminal took his own life Wednesday in front of UN war crimes judges, apparently drinking poison just after they upheld his 20-year jail term for atrocities committed during the Balkans conflict.
Slobodan Praljak, 72, died in hospital, after drinking from a small brown glass bottle in full glare of the cameras at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
As the judges handed down their very last verdict at the court, Praljak, a former military commander of a breakaway Bosnian Croat statelet, shouted out angrily:"Praljak is not a criminal. I reject your verdict."
He then raised a small brown bottle to his lips, and tipped it into his mouth. The hearing was quickly suspended as Praljak's lawyer shouted out:"My client says he has taken poison."
Immediately after sentence was passed on Praljak"he drank a liquid while in court and quickly fell ill,"court spokesman Nenad Golcevski told reporters. He could not confirm what was in the bottle.
Efforts were made to give the former film director some medical treatment and he was"transported to the hospital where he passed,"Golcevski added.
Resuming the hearing a few hours later, presiding judge Carmel Agius revealed Dutch authorities had already launched an investigation, adding"courtroom one is now a crime scene."
Hearings at the ICTY are held amid tight security, with all defendants and visitors undergoing strict searches. So it was not clear how Praljak had managed to get the bottle of liquid into the courtroom.
Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic slammed the"injustice"of the UN tribunal and expressed his condolences.
