As judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia were in the midst of delivering rulings on Wednesday over appeals related to Croatia’s involvement in the Bosnian conflict, one of the six defendants before the court suddenly drank what appeared to be a vial of poison and died shortly afterward, Croatian state television and a tribunal official said. When judges announced that they had upheld a 20-year sentence against Slobodan Praljak, the former general addressed the bench in Croat. In a solemn voice, he said: “Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal. I reject your judgment with contempt.”

Mr. Praljak then raised a small vial and drank from it. His lawyer called out, “Our client says he took poison.” Mr. Praljak was taken from the courtroom shortly afterward, and the hearing was suspended.

He was later pronounced dead and his body removed from the court building, a tribunal official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Croatian state television said Mr. Praljak had died in a hospital in The Hague, citing unidentified sources close to him.

See the full NY Times article here.

Well, gosh, that can’t happen!

Poison is arguably #1 on the list of things you shouldn’t allow a convicted war criminal to bring into court! I mean this just shows absolutely, positively, zero awareness of the situation! It’s almost like if you back a guy into a corner and convict him of some terrible stuff, he may want to kill himself! This wasn’t even a subtle poisoning either. The dude stood right up and basically made a speech! I don’t know about you guys, but I’m also not totally buying this guy’s claim that he’s not a war criminal. Bro, you just intentionally drank poison and died; that seems like something a guilty person would do! And hey, if this was a wrongful conviction, then I’ll be the first to say that it was an impressively spiteful appeal.

I’m a little confused about what happens immediately after the poisoning.

 His lawyer called out, “Our client says he took poison.”

Does he tell his attorneys that he took poison, or did they know beforehand? Let’s live out that first scenario for a minute. It just seems a little strange that that would be the last thing he’d say, right? Like, I don’t know- it just seems like that would be the most obvious thing of all once you died. I think we’d all pretty quickly connect the dots between “oh you drank something mysterious” and “oh, now you’re dead”. It’s like saying “I got hit by a bus”, right before you step in front of a bus. What you did is going to be pretty obvious to all of us. So drinking poison, then whispering to your attorneys, “I drank poison,” while possible, would be a strange move.

Now looking at the second scenario: if he told he told his attorneys he was going to drink bad juice beforehand, oh man, those guys are fucked. That’s the thing about most justice systems- they’re not happy when people kill themselves in court. I guess it’s possible that the attorneys did what apparently no other member of The Hague could do, which was see a vial and immediately assume poison. It’s too bad everyone in that court has a 10 out of 10 rating for sense of justice, and a 2 out of 10 rating for reflexes. I watched the video and all I see is old people! That’s no way to secure a courtroom! C’mon Hague! Not your first war criminal! Be better!