THE HAGUE: A Bosnian Croat war criminal died on Wednesday after apparently drinking poison in dramatic courtroom scenes after UN judges upheld his 20-year jail term, Croatian media said, throwing the tribunal into chaos during its final judgement.

Slobodan Praljak, 72, died in hospital, according to Croatia’s state-run news agency HINA after he drank from a brown bottle at the hearing at the Inter­national Criminal Tribu­n­al for the former Yugo­sla­via (ICTY) in The Hague.

After the judges upheld a 20-year jail term originally imposed in 2013, Praljak, 72, a former military commander of a break­away Bosnian Croat statelet, shouted out angrily: “Praljak is not a criminal. I reject your verdict.”

He then raised a small brown bottle to his lips, and tipped it into his mouth in full view of the cameras filming the appeal hearing for the six Bosnian Croat political and military leaders.

The hearing was then quickly suspended as Praljak’s lawyer shouted out: “My client says he has taken poison.”

Resuming a few hours later amid confusion, presiding judge Carmel Agius revealed Dutch authorities had already launched an investigation into the incident.

“Courtroom one is now a crime scene,” Agius said.

In the complex ruling the judges upheld the jail terms against all six defen­dants, including a 25-year sentence imposed on Jadr­a­n­ko Prlic, the former prime minister of the breakaway Bosnian Croat statelet, known as Herzog-Bosna.

Praljak was specifically charged with ordering the destruction of Mostar’s 16th-century bridge in November 1993, which judges in the first trial had said “caused disproportionate damage to the Muslim civilian population”.

The bloody 1992-95 war in Bosnia, in which 100,000 people died and 2.2m were displaced, mainly pitted Bosnian Muslims against Bosnian Serbs, but also saw some brutal fighting betw­een Bos­nian Muslims and Bosnian Croats after an initial alliance fell apart.

Wednesday’s verdict comes a week after the judges imposed a life sentence on former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, whose ruthlessness in the conflict earned him the title the “Butcher of Bosnia”.

His judgement had also descended into confusion when he accused the judges of lying and had to be dragged away into a nearby room to watch the end of the proceedings.

The ICTY charged Prlic and his co-defendants in 2004. The six surrendered with Croatia under pressure to comply with the court in return for joining the European Union.

The ICTY closes its doors on December 31, having indicted and dealt with 161 people.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2017