Slobodan Praljak's Courtroom Suicide

Editor's Note: The video clip described here contains an uncensored suicide. Viewer discretion is advised.

Overview

Slobodan Praljak's Courtroom Suicide refers to the death of former Croatian general Slobodan Praljak, who drank poison in The Hague after judges upheld his 20-year prison sentence for war crimes and crimes humanity related to Croatia's involvement in the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict. The moment was captured on film and images of Praljak's suicide began spreading online shortly after, leading some to use the image as a reaction image in memes.

Background

On November 29th, 2017, Slobodan Praljak and five other defendants appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia at the Hague.^[1] Moments after judges upheld Praljak's 20-year prison sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Praljak stood up, stated "Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal," proceeded to drink from a container, then announce "I have taken poison" (shown below). Praljak later died in a Dutch hospital. He was 72.

Developments

The incident immediately led many to wonder how Praljak had smuggled the poison into the heavily-secured Hague. Dutch investigators labeled the courtroom a crime scene and launched an investigation into the incident. The moment became an international news story and was covered by nearly every major global publication, including Reuters,^[2] NPR,^[3] The Guardian^[4] and many more.

Online Reaction

Online, internet users reacted to the event with dark humor, turning Praljak's suicide into a reaction image. On Twitter, user @BrandyLJensen^[5] used the image of Praljak with the caption "when I receive even the mildest criticism or face a minor obstacle," gaining over 260 retweets and 1,900 likes (shown below, left). Twitter user @m2qm1i^[6] posted a joke that used an image of Praljak as a Pacha Edit, gaining over 260 retweets and 1,200 likes (shown below, right).

On Reddit, jokes about Praljak were submitted to /r/dankmemes. A post including Praljak in an image of people who did nothing wrong gained 50 points in 3 hours on the subreddit^[7] (shown below, left). A post on Imgur, a post mixing Praljak with Cracking Open A Cold One With The Boys gained 29 upvotes^[8] (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References