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from the does-this-smell-like-almonds? dept.
After hearing his guilty sentence upheld, convicted war criminal Slobodan Praljak took out a small bottle of poison and drank it. The act of defiance was streamed live to viewers around the world. Praljak died a few hours later:
It happened in the span of a few confused minutes.
Moments after hearing that his 20-year sentence for war crimes had been upheld, Slobodan Praljak defied the admonitions of his judges, declared his innocence a final time — and with eyes wide, as if shocked himself at what he was doing, put a tiny glass to his lips and gulped deeply. "I just drank poison," he exclaimed after lowering the glass. And the presiding judge asked for the curtains to be closed.
The end came quickly. Praljak died within hours Wednesday. But as Dutch authorities open their investigation into the incident at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, one difficult question promises to persist much longer: How exactly did the former Bosnian Croat general manage to commit suicide in a high-security courtroom in The Hague, Netherlands, and in front of viewers streaming the video live around the world?
There is reason — besides his swift death — to believe Praljak's declaration that he had indeed taken poison.
"There was a preliminary test of the substance in the container and all I can say for now is that there was a chemical substance in that container that can cause death," Dutch prosecutor Marilyn Fikenscher told The Associated Press. That said, the official cause of death will have to wait until an autopsy is completed.
Slobodan Praljak. The poison is thought to have been cyanide.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @05:11PM (3 children)
Imagine the US civil war, but with great powers taking the side of the south. The secession succeeds, and Lincoln, Grant etc are handed over by the Northern States to an "international criminal court". Sometimes rather willingly, because the surviving North wants trade access to British North America and other areas of influence of those countries that broke the old union apart.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday December 03 2017, @06:33PM (1 child)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @06:55PM
Criminals always are on the losing side. Otherwise they would be heroes like Lincoln and Sherman.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @07:12PM
I think going further back is even more telling. Had the American revolution failed, the people we know as the founding fathers would have almost certainly faced "trial" and summary execution in kangaroo courts. And the execution, in English style at the time, would likely have been to have each man publicly drawn and quartered. [wikipedia.org] Link for those unfamiliar with how exactly barbaric the English remained for centuries. And of course instead of being the founding fathers they would be considered terrorists, criminals, and so on.
It really makes one consider how much history is written by the victor. Or at least was. Imagine if the internet had existed during times of the American revolution. Being able to see how the events unfolded in the public eye, two centuries later, would have been absolutely fascinating. Or even in more contemporary times - imagine seeing the progression in the public eye from the Weimar Republic to Nazi Germany. The internet era ensures the most great epoch will be something that people of the future will be able to see clearly - regardless of who wins.