War criminal Slobodan Praljak has died after drinking what he claimed to be poison during a court appearance, according to Croatian state TV.
The former Croatian army chief drank from a small bottle and yelled “I am not a war criminal, I oppose this conviction” when his 20-year sentence was upheld by UN judges at The Hague.
Praljak was convicted of involvement in a campaign to drive Muslims out of Bosnia and create an ethnically pure Croat state during the Bosnian war in the 1990s sparked by the breakup of Yugoslavia.
The conflict mainly saw Bosnian Muslims fighting Bosnian Serbs, but there was also deadly clashes involving Bosnian Muslims and Croats after an alliance fell apart.
A total of 100,000 people died and 2.2 million were displaced in the three-year war.
