Probe fails to unravel mystery of Croat’s courtroom suicide

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Dutch prosecutors have failed to unravel the mystery of how a Croatian ex-general managed to smuggle a bottle of poison into a United Nations courtroom and take his own life seconds after an appeals judge confirmed his 20-year sentence for crimes during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Slobodan Praljak took his own life Nov. 29 last year, proclaiming his innocence and then drinking from a small bottle containing potassium cyanide. He collapsed in court and died in a Dutch hospital about two hours later.

The Hague Public Prosecution Service says in a written statement issued Friday that investigations failed to establish “in what way and at what point in time Mr. Praljak had obtained the potassium cyanide he used.”

The prosecutors say no criminal offences were committed in Praljak’s suicide.