Dutch authorities probe Bosnian war criminal's suicide

Dutch authorities on Thursday launched a probe into the suicide of a Bosnian Croat war criminal who died after drinking a vial of poison while standing in the dock at a UN tribunal here, where his war crimes sentence of 20 years was upheld.

Seconds after the judges had delivered their decision at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Wednesday, Slobodan Praljak screamed: "Praljak is not a criminal. I reject your verdict," the Guardian reported.

The 72-year-old then raised a small brown bottle to his lips, and drank it in full view of the cameras filming the hearing. He died later at a hospital.

In a brief statement, Dutch prosecutors said the inquiry would look at "assisted suicide and violation of the Medicines Act".

Investigators will look at who gave him the deadly liquid, what it contained and how he managed to smuggle it into what is supposed to be a high-security courtroom, according to the BBC.

Dutch police have declared the courtroom a crime scene.

The confirmation rulings against Praljak and five other defendants brought an end to more than 20 years of work by the tribunal.

Praljak's suicide was not the first during the Hague trials.

Croatian Serb war crimes suspect Slavko Dokmanovic hanged himself in his cell in 1998, and fellow Croatian Serb Milan Babic killed himself in his cell in 2006.

Praljak had already completed a significant portion of his sentence. Before the Bosnian conflict, he had been a writer and film director.

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

The proceedings on Wednesday came a week after ICTY judges imposed a life sentence on former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, whose ruthlessness in the conflict earned him the title of "Butcher of Bosnia".

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

--IANS

ksk/bg