The final judgement of the long-running International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was dramatically halted on Wednesday when a former
The final judgement of the long-running International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was dramatically halted on Wednesday when a former Bosnian Serb commander appearing for sentencing abruptly tilted his head back and consumed the contents of a flask.
“I just drank poison,” Slobodan Praljak announced to the court moments after the U. N. appeals judges upheld his 20-year sentence.
“I am not a war criminal! I oppose this conviction,” Praljak, 72, he declared.
Reuters reports that “the presiding judge suspended the hearing and called for a doctor. An ambulance was at the building and paramedics raced up to the courtroom.”
It was not immediately clear whether Praljak did in fact drink poison. His condition was also not known.
The Associated Press adds: “Wednesday’s hearing was the final case at the groundbreaking tribunal before it closes its doors next month. The tribunal, which last week convicted former Bosnian Serb military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic of genocide and other crimes, was set up in 1993, while fighting still raged in the former Yugoslavia. It indicted 161 suspects and convicted 90 of them.”
