Bosnian War Criminal Drinks Poison On Camera During Appeals Hearing And Dies

In 2013, six former Bosnian Croat officials were given prison sentences after being convicted for war crimes against Bosnian Muslims, including rape and murder, that took place during the Croat-Bosniak War in the early 1990s.

Slobodan Praljak, former assistant defense minister of Croatia and commander of the Croatian Defense Council, had helped secure weapons and ammunition for the Croatian Defense Council army. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

In an appeal hearing for the six convicted war criminals on November 29, Praljak stood before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Netherlands. When the judge upheld his sentence, the 72-year-old pulled out a small vial he'd sneaked in and drank from it, stating the liquid inside was poison.

After yelling he wasn't a war criminal and that he rejected the verdict, Praljak swallowed the unidentified liquid. Watch the courtroom footage below.

(via Huffington Post and CNN)

The judge immediately suspended the hearings, with authorities declaring the courtroom a crime scene. Praljak was taken by ambulance to a hospital in The Hague, but he died shortly after.