This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/world/europe/slobodan-praljak-hague-poison.html

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
A War Criminal Drank Poison in Court. How Could That Happen? A War Criminal Drank Poison in Court, and Died. How Could This Happen?
(about 7 hours later)
LONDON — The international tribunal dealing with the former Yugoslavia said on Friday that it would conduct an “independent expert review” of the death of Slobodan Praljak, a Croat military commander in the 1992-95 Bosnian conflict who drank what he said was poison in full view of the court that found him guilty of war crimes. PARIS — The moment was dramatic enough: In a courtroom in The Hague on Wednesday, a military commander from the former Yugoslavia pulled out a small bottle and drank from it, declaring that he had ingested poison to protest his conviction for war crimes. The judges quickly ordered that courtroom curtains block the view of spectators in the public gallery. Live television coverage went dark.
In a statement, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia said its inquiries would “complement” an official Dutch investigation. Mr. Praljak’s apparent suicide on Wednesday stunned judges, lawyers and spectators and raised many questions about how he might have obtained poison and managed to smuggle the vial into the courtroom. But what happened next, beyond public view, was just as shocking, according to lawyers and court officials. The war criminal, Slobodan Praljak, 72, slumped in his chair and began to gasp for breath. He was later taken to a Dutch hospital and pronounced dead.
“Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal,” he declared shortly after judges reaffirmed a 20-year sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity. “I reject your judgment with contempt.” On Friday, Dutch prosecutors announced that Mr. Praljak had died of heart failure after ingesting potassium cyanide — a highly toxic compound — and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia announced that it would conduct its own “independent, expert review” of Mr. Praljak’s suicide. But a key question remained unanswered: How did he manage to smuggle the poison into court?
The court said that he had died in a hospital in The Hague after being taken there by ambulance. Defense lawyers at the tribunal say the security arrangements in place for defendants like Mr. Praljak, and the five other men whose sentences were affirmed on Wednesday, were rigorous. They were subjected to body searches when they left their detention center — inside a high-security Dutch prison — and again when they arrived at the tribunal building. But, court officials acknowledged, body-cavity searches were not part of the routine.
Its inquiry was announced after Croatia’s justice minister called into question the speed of responses by security and medical staff. Even so, that left the question of how Mr. Praljak could have laid hands on the toxin since visitors were supposedly searched, too. And in the months before his final appearance in court, he had seemed to eschew contact with his family and his lawyers.
The court said on Friday that its inquiry would be led by Hassan B. Jallow, the chief justice of Gambia and a former prosecutor at a tribunal responsible for war crimes in Rwanda. “The review is mandated to undertake an assessment of relevant existing procedures as well as make any recommendations which may assist other courts in the future,” the tribunal said. A report on the findings is expected by Dec. 31, when the tribunal dealing with the former Yugoslavia is to be closed. Nika Pinter, his lead counsel, said in a telephone interview from Zagreb, the Croatian capital, that Mr. Praljak had told his family not to be present at the judgment.
But it was unclear to what extent those findings would be open to scrutiny. “The outcome of the review will be made public, subject to due process and confidentiality considerations,” the tribunal said. “For 13 years his wife came to visit him in prison every month, the last time I think at the end of October. His stepson and stepdaughter would also visit,” Ms. Pinter said. However, she added, “He forbade his wife to listen to the judgment. And he told her: Don’t come to The Hague.”
To smuggle the vial into the courtroom, Mr. Praljak had to circumvent what are supposed to be tight security arrangements. Defendants are transferred to the courtroom from a detention center in a high-security Dutch jail. They are escorted by guards and enter the building through an underground parking lot. They are supposed to have no contact with members of the public, and visitors to the jail must pass through a security check. Ms. Pinter recalled: “Last weekend I called him and asked him if he would like me to visit him before the judgment. He said: ‘No, don’t come.’ I called again on Tuesday and told him I would come to court early to meet him. He told me: ‘No, don’t come. I’ll see you in the courtroom.’” She said she believed he wanted to spare her from what followed.
On Thursday, a Dutch prosecutor, Marilyn Fikenscher, told The Associated Press that a preliminary test of the vial from which Mr. Praljak drank had revealed a “chemical substance” that “can cause death.” But she declined to elaborate on its precise nature. “From the start, 13 years ago, he told me he could not bear being called a war criminal,” Ms. Pinter said. “He couldn’t live with the stigma.” But she added: “He never gave a hint that he was planning to end his life.”
An autopsy was started Friday morning, the prosecutor said, with two Croatian experts observing it at the request of the international tribunal. Mr. Praljak had been a theater and film director and a writer. He joined the Croatian Army and was named a general when it was formed after the country broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991.
Mr. Praljak, a former theater director, was one of six former fighters who faced charges relating to a campaign to drive Muslims from a Croat state formed in 1993 during the Bosnian war. Mr. Praljak held the rank of general. Named commander of the Croatian forces fighting in Bosnia, he was a key figure during the conflict, including the long siege and shelling of the ethnically mixed city of Mostar. At the time, he was the main liaison between political and military leaders in Croatia and the Croatian force fighting in Bosnia.
On Wednesday, the court upheld sentences against all six former fighters. They were initially found guilty in 2013 but had appealed the judgment. Mr. Praljak played a leading role in the long assault on the ethnically mixed city of Mostar, which included the destruction of the town’s 16th-century stone bridge. He surrendered to the tribunal in 2004 and was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2013. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but appealed. (He would have been due for release in 2019, after serving two-thirds of his sentence, including time served.)
The tribunal had just affirmed his verdict and sentence on Wednesday when Mr. Praljak kept standing.
He reached forward to pick up the vial.
“Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal,” he declared portentously, in Croatian. “I reject your judgment with contempt.”
He then opened his fist, took out the vial, tilted back his head and drank.
“I have taken poison,” Mr. Praljak said. One of his lawyers, Natacha Fauveau Ivanovic, called out to ensure that the presiding judge, Carmel Agius, understood: “Mr. President, our client says he took poison.”
The judges were stunned, but appeared not to have fully grasped what had happened. Judge Agius directed the next defendant to rise, and began reading.
“People did not realize exactly what was going on,” said Michael Karnavas, a veteran defense lawyer representing Jadranko Prlic, one of Mr. Praljak’s co-defendants. “This man was always full of bravado. Prajlak sat down and almost immediately he was gasping for air, struggling to breathe. It was loud. He made sounds like he was choking. I saw him slumped in his chair. Someone shouted for help. The guards came over and got him onto the floor.”
Mr. Karnavas added: “After a few minutes two medics arrived from the medical office in the tribunal. One of the medics calls out: The heart has stopped. They start doing CPR, they are pumping his chest to get his heart going, taking turns with some of the security guards.”
After 20 minutes, an emergency team arrived from a local hospital and took over. They kept him in the building for about an hour because they wanted to stabilize him. It was not clear what made the medical team finally decide to take him to the hospital. Croatia’s justice minister has called into question the speed of the responses by security and medical staff.
The tribunal said on Friday that its inquiry would be led by Hassan B. Jallow, the chief justice of Gambia and a former prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
A report on the findings is expected by Dec. 31.
It was unclear to what extent those findings would be open to scrutiny. “The outcome of the review will be made public, subject to due process and confidentiality considerations,” the tribunal said.
To smuggle the vial into the courtroom, Mr. Praljak had to circumvent what were supposed to be tight security arrangements. The defendants are escorted by guards and enter the building through an underground parking lot. They are strip-searched when they leave the detention unit and then again at the court. They are unable to have contact with members of the public.
Visitors also face tough security checks, said Ms. Fauveau Ivanovic, the defense lawyer, first to enter the high-security Dutch prison, and then again at the United Nations detention unit set within the compound.
“Everything — our shoes, our clothes, our bags — everything goes through the X-ray machine,” she said. “We walk through a scanner, like at an airport. We can’t bring in liquids.”
Mr. Karnavas recalled the last time he saw Mr. Praljak. “I last saw him outside the courtroom that morning as he was coming out of the toilet,” he said. “I thought nothing of it at the time. But I’m thinking about that now.”