Bosnian Croat Slobodan Praljak dies on drinking poison NEWS / YUGOSLAVIA WATCH: Omarska's survivors - Bosnia 1992 Bosnian Croat leaders & their sentences Jadranko Prlic, prime minister of the Croat statelet Herzeg-Bosnia: 25 years Bruno Stojic, defence minister of Herzeg- Bosnia: 20 years Slobodan Praljak, HVO chief: 20 years Milivoje Petkovic, deputy commander of HVO: 20 years Valentin Coric, commander of HVO\'s military police: 16 years Berislav Pusic, president of Herzeg-Bosnia \'s Commission for the Exchange of Prisoners: 10 years WATCH: Al Jazeera World - Women who Refuse to Die Bosnia Yugoslavia Netherlands Crimes against humanity UN SIGN UP A commander of Bosnian Croat forces during the Bosnian War has died from drinking what he claimed to be poison at the war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. The death on Wednesday was first reported by Croatian state TV. Upon hearing that his 20-year prison sentence had been upheld, General Slobodan Praljak shouted at the presiding judge: "I, Slobodan Praljak, reject the verdict. I'm not a war criminal." Then he drank from a small bottle or flask and declared: "What I am drinking now is poison." Advertisement The judge suspended the hearing and called for a doctor. The incident happened when the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was handing down its last judgment in an appeal by six Bosnian Croat political and military leaders, who were convicted in 2013 of persecuting, expelling and murdering Bosnian Muslims during the 1992-1995 war. Speaking to Al Jazeera from Sarajevo in Bosnia, Denis Dzidic, deputy editor for the Detecor project, said policemen and an ambulance were ordered to the tribunal building. "Slobodan Praljak had his first instance verdict confirmed, in which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison," Dzidic said. "He said that he did not accept the verdict, that he was not a war criminal and then drank the substance.