Upon losing his appeal Wednesday at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, convicted war criminal Slobodan Praljak, 72, shouted “Praljak is not a criminal.” He then drank from a small brown bottle. The hearing was quickly suspended as his lawyer exclaimed, “My client says he has taken poison.”
The presiding judge suspended the hearing and an ambulance was called. Reports indicate he died in hospital.
One of six Bosnian Croat politicians convicted in 2013 of persecuting, expelling and murdering Muslims during the Bosnian War in the 1990s, Praljak was originally given a 20-year sentence.