UN war crimes court for former Yugoslavia completes work after stunning drama

by Jesse Wieten

THE HAGUE, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- With war crimes convict Slobodan Praljak poisoning himself, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague closed with an expected ending on Wednesday.

Accused of war crimes, Praljak passed away in the HMC Hospital in The Hague three hours after he poisoned himself in the courtroom.

During the public pronouncement of his appeal judgment, the appeals chamber upheld the conviction and 20-year prison sentence to the former commander of the ethnic Croat troops in the 1992-1995 war.

"Judges, Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal. I reject the verdict with contempt," he stood up and yelled immediately.

He then drank a liquid from a small glass. "I just drank poison," he said.

Praljak quickly fell ill and received assistance from the ICTY medical staff before he was rushed to hospital. Judge Carmel Agius immediately suspended the session.

"In accordance with standard procedures, at the request of the ICTY, the Dutch authorities have initiated an independent investigation which is currently ongoing," the ICTY stated in a statement. "The tribunal has extended its condolences to the next of kin."

The death of a convict on the same day as his final verdict in the courtroom is a novelty for the ICTY, but his is not the first death in the tribunal's history.

A total of eight convicts died after their trials or while serving their sentence, and seven accused passed away after their cases were transferred to the tribunal, according to information from the ICTY.

The most well-known of the deceased was former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in his cell on March 11, 2006.

Just like Praljak, who is 72, most of the accused are already of an age where health issues play a major role in many proceedings at the tribunal. The case of former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic is one such case. His trial started on May 16, 2012 and has been delayed several times due to his poor health.

During judgment day last Wednesday, Mladic had requested a suspension because he was suffering from high blood pressure. Judge Alphons Orie denied the request, claiming that the doctor's advice was not so alarming so as to immediately stop, and so continued reading the judgment.

Mladic then stood up and started yelling in the courtroom and Orie ordered Mladic to be removed. Mladic was absent from the courtroom when he received a sentence of life imprisonment.

Praljak was a former assistant defense minister of Croatia and during the Bosnian War was commander of the main staff of the HVO, the Croatian Defense Council, the official military formation of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, an unrecognized wartime entity that existed in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1991 and 1994.

On May 29, 2013, the ICTY judges sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment. Together with five other high-ranking officials from Herzeg-Bosna, Praljak heard his appeals judgment on Wednesday.

The judges also confirmed a 25-year prison term against Jadranko Prlic, the former prime minister of a breakaway Bosnian Croat statelet, a 20-year term for its former defense minister Bruno Stojic, also a 20-year term for a former militia head Milivoj Petkovic, a 16-year term to former commander of Bosnian Croat military police Valentin Coric and a 10-year term for Berislav Pusic, ex-head of prisoner exchanges and detention facilities.

With the appeals judgment, the ICTY era comes to an end. On Dec. 31 this year, the tribunal will formally close its doors.

Since its establishment in 1993, the tribunal has indicted 161 persons for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001.

The landmark judgment of Mladic last Wednesday was the last trial judgment delivered by the ICTY.

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), officially the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, already took over ICTY cases in the appeal phase, such as the case against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, and will also continue to do so in Mladic's appeal case. Enditem