The Dutch Prosecutor’s Office said on Friday they found no evidence that a criminal act has been committed related to the courtroom suicide of convicted Bosnian Croat war criminal Slobodan Praljak, who had poisoned himself at the Hague tribunal in November 2017.
Praljak had attended the final ruling at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on his appeal against a May 2013 verdict which found him guilty for crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. After the court dismissed his appeal and upheld the original verdict, Praljak stood up, told the court he would not accept the ruling, and downed a vial of poisonous liquid in front of cameras broadcasting live.
He was immediately taken to the local Westeinde hospital, and was pronounced dead only hours later.
Praljak – a top commander of the Croat Defense Council (HVO) paramilitary when the crime was committed between 1992 and 1994 – along with five other top officials of the wartime self-proclaimed Bosnian Croat statelet of Herzeg-Bosnia (HB) were handed lengthy prison sentences in 2013 for leading what the Hague tribunal defined as a joint criminal enterprise to commit ethnic cleansing against Bosniaks in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina under their control, with the ultimate goal of annexing HB to neighbouring Croatia.
After Praljak took his life in November 2017, the ICTY asked the Dutch Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the circumstances of Praljak’s courtroom suicide.
The investigators focused on two issues. The first concerned the substance that Praljak had used and whether it was legal under Dutch law. This was was later determined to be potassium cyanide, which is an odourless crystalline salt soluble in water and used in electroplating and industry. Although the substance is not readily available to the general public, possessing it is legal under Dutch law.
The other focus of the investigation was determining if someone had helped Praljak obtain the poison. Investigators reviewed security camera footage and questioned witnesses who were present in the courtroom and in the rooms where Praljak spent time before the ruling. However, no clues on how he managed to bring the bottle into the courtroom were found.
None of the security camera footage showed him handling any vial-like object, nor did they indicate anyone handing him one. Nothing unusual was found during the search of the premises, and the security camera footage did not reveal where he pulled the bottle from.
Based on witness testimonies, investigators concluded that Praljak had been preparing for his suicide for a while. He had asked for his personal belongings to be packed up and sent from the Hague back to Croatia. Praljak also left a letter addressed to his family, where he explained that he had earlier made the decision to take his life in case he is found guilty.
Prosecutors added that he could have been in possession of the poison for a long time prior to his suicide, as the substance takes the form of sugar-like crystals and is easily stored, and ingesting very small amounts of it is enough to cause death.
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