(THE HAGUE, Netherlands) — A courtroom in the Netherlands was left stunned Wednesday after a former commander of Bosnian Croat forces took his own life by drinking what he said was a bottle of “poison.”
Right after Slobodan Praljak’s 20-year sentence was upheld at a U.N. tribunal on war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, he yelled “I am not a war criminal” and proceeded to drink from a small bottle.The incident was captured on the courtroom’s video feed.
The judges at the International Crime Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia appeared stunned and confused for a short time before starting to move on.
“I have taken poison,” Praljak interrupted, according to an interpreter on the courtroom’s video feed. Many in the room began to scramble to assist Praljak. The presiding judge quickly ordered the court be suspended and that the room’s curtains be shut.
Later, the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said in a statement that Praljak died shortly after imbibing the liquid.
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.