A former Bosnian Croat military leader died on Wednesday after swallowing what he said was poison in a United Nations war crimes court after judges upheld his 20-year prison sentence.
Slobodan Praljak, 72, lost his appeal against his sentence in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), located in The Hague, Netherlands. The court had sentenced Praljak, a former general, for involvement in a campaign to drive Muslims out of a would-be Bosnian Croat ministate in Bosnia in the early 1990s, the Associated Press reported.
After losing his appeal, Praljak told the court, "Judges, Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal. With disdain, I reject your verdict." He was instructed to sit down but instead drank from a small brown bottle, downing everything in it.
"What I drank was poison,"Praljak said.
Praljak's attorney repeated to the judges that her client had consumed poison.
Presiding Judge Carmel Agius quickly suspended the hearings and Dutch authorities subsequently declared the courtroom a crime scene.
Praljak was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died, according to press reports A spokesman for the international court later confirmed his death.
"Mr. Praljak drank a liquid while in court and quickly fell ill," Nenad Golcevski told reporters. "The ICTY medical staff immediately assisted Mr. Praljak. Simultaneously an ambulance was summoned. Mr. Praljak was transported to a nearby hospital to receive further medical assistance, where he passed."
The ICTY did not elaborate on the nature of the liquid Praljak drank but authorities are investigating the situation.