War criminal dies after drinking poison in court

A Bosnian Croat war criminal has died in hospital after drinking poison during an appeal hearing in The Hague.

Slobodan Praljak, 72, died in hospital, with the United Nations court announcing that the courtroom was now “a crime scene.”


On hearing that his 20-year jail term had been upheld, the ex-commander of Bosnian Croat forces said he was not a criminal and then drank from a bottle, the BBC reports.

In 2013, he was sentenced for crimes in the city of Mostar during the Bosnian war in 1992-95.


Praljak was one of six former Bosnian Croat political and military leaders up before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

They were attending the final appeals judgment to be handed down by the court.