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UN war crimes defendant claims to drink poison in court UN war crimes defendant claims to drink poison in court
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The final hearing at a United Nations war crimes tribunal has been dramatically halted after a former Bosnian Croat military official drank from a small bottle in court and claimed to have taken poison. The UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia descended into chaos during its final judgment after a Bosnian Croat defendant said he had taken poison to protest against the upholding of his 20-year jail term.
Slobodan Praljak, 72, a former commander in Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, drank from a small bottle or glass and yelled “I am not a war criminal” moments after judges at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia confirmed his 20-year sentence on appeal on Wednesday. Judges were handing down judgment in the appeals case of six former Bosnian Croat political and military leaders, in the court’s final verdict for war crimes committed during the bloody 1990s break-up of Yugoslavia.
Praljak’s lawyer then shouted “My client says he has taken poison”, before the presiding judge suspended the hearing and called for a doctor. It could not immediately be confirmed whether Praljak had taken poison or what the status of his health was. Seconds after his sentence was upheld, former military commander Slobodan Praljak, 72, shouted out angrily: “Praljak is not a criminal. I reject your verdict.”
Praljak was one of six former Bosnian Croat political and military leaders due to hear their appeal verdicts on Wednesday. All had been convicted in 2013 of persecuting, expelling and murdering Muslims during Bosnia’s war. He then raised a small brown bottle to his lips, and drank it in full view of the cameras filming the hearing.
Wednesday’s hearing is the final case to be completed at the tribunal before it closes its doors next month. The unprecedented scenes came just after the judges also upheld a 25-year prison term against Jadranko Prlic, the former prime minister of a breakaway Bosnian Croat statelet, and a 20-year term for its former defence minister Bruno Stojic.
The tribunal, which last week convicted the former Bosnian Serb military chief General Ratko Mladić of genocide and other crimes, was set up in 1993 while fighting was ongoing in the former Yugoslavia. It indicted 161 suspects and convicted 90 of them. The hearing was then quickly suspended as Praljak’s lawyer shouted out: “My client says he has taken poison.”
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”. As court officials surrounded the grey-haired and bearded Praljak, the presiding judge, Carmel Agius, immediately ordered the proceedings suspended and the curtains screening the courtroom were abruptly closed to the public.
The presiding judge Carmel Agius had overturned some of Praljak’s convictions but left his sentence unchanged. Within minutes, AFP journalists saw an ambulance arrive outside the tribunal in The Hague, while a helicopter hovered overhead.
Several emergency rescue workers rushed into the building carrying equipment in backpacks. A court guard later appealed for calm, saying Praljak was alive and “receiving all necessary medical attention”.
Praljak was specifically charged with ordering the destruction of Mostar’s 16th-century bridge in November 1993, which judges in the first trial had said “caused disproportionate damage to the Muslim civilian population”.
A symbol of Bosnia’s devastation in the war, the Ottoman-era bridge was later rebuilt. The city experienced some of the worst of the Croat-Muslim clashes, with nearly 80% of its eastern area destroyed in the fighting.
In their ruling, the judges 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.
The case has been keenly watched in Zagreb, and the appeal judges said that all six men, who had been found guilty of taking part in a scheme to remove Bosnian Muslims, “remained convicted of numerous and very serious crimes”.
They have not yet passed judgment on the three remaining defendants: Milivoj Petkovic, 68, Valentin Coric, 61, and Berislav Pusic, 65.
The bloody 1992-95 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 brutal fighting between Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats after an initial alliance fell apart.
Wednesday’s proceeding came 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 of “Butcher of Bosnia”.
The bald and bespectacled Prlic, who once turned down a promising career in Washington as an economist, has vehemently denied the charges against him. He told the court in March his trial represented “a dark side of international justice”, insisting he was not part of the chain of command of the main Bosnian-Croat army in Bosnia, the HVO.
The prosecution had also appealed against the sentences, urging judges to impose 40-year terms on Prlic and three of his co-defendants, saying the “crimes were massive in scale”.
The statelet, backed by the government of the Croatian nationalist leader Franjo Tudjman, was formally dismantled in 1996 as part of the peace deal that ended the war. The “president” of Herceg-Bosna, Mate Boban, died in 1997 and Tudjman in 1999, leaving Prlic the highest-ranking Bosnian Croat official to face prosecution for the crimes.
The ICTY charged Prlic and his co-defendants in 2004. The six surrendered with Croatia under pressure to comply with the court in return for joining the European Union.
The ICTY closes its doors on 31 December, having indicted and dealt with 161 people.