Slobodan Praljak  was a Bosnian Croat engineer, film and theatredirector, businessman, author and retired general in the Croatian Army and the Croatian Defence Council, an army of the Croatian Republic of Herzegovin-Bosnia.

In 2013, he was among six Bosnian Croat politicians convicted at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes against the Muslim population during the Croat-Bosniak War.

 He was sentenced to 20 years in jail.

An appeal was heard in 2017 whereby Praljak, upon hearing the guilty verdict upheld, supposedly drank poison, and died shortly thereafter.

Slobodan Praljak was born on 2 January 1945 in Čapljina.

His father Mirko worked for Yugoslav secret service UDBA.

 Praljak had three university degrees.

In 1970, he graduated as an electrical engineer at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Zagreb with a GPA of 4.0/5.

He wrote his thesis on the correction of the chromatic image in the main of an electrical signal for television work. In 1971, he graduated from the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, majoring in philosophy and sociology.

In 1972, he graduated from the Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Art. At first, he worked as manager of the electronics laboratory at the Nikola Tesla Vocational High School, and since 1972 as a freelance artist.

Praljak was also a theater director in theaters in Zagreb, Osijek and Mostar. He directed the television series

• "Blesan i Tulipan" [Blesan and Tulipan],
• television dramas "Novela od Stanca" and
• "Sargaško more" [Sargasso Sea],
• documentaries "Smrt psa" (1980) [Death of a Dog],
• "Sandžak" and
• "Duhan" [Tobacco] (both in 1990), and
• movie Povratak Katarine Kožul (1989) [Return of Katarina Kožul].

During the war

He drew public attention in 1991 when he voluntarily joined the newly formed Croatian Armed Forces after the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence. He formed a unit composed of the Zagreb artists and intellectuals with whom he held positions in Sunja.

Although he did not have any military education, he successfully defended this position from the technically superior forces of the Yugoslav People's Army and the Army of the Republic of Serb Krajina.

After the Sarajevo Agreement, he was made Major General, received a number of responsibilities in the Ministry of Defense, and became one of the 14 members of the Croatian National Defense Council and a member of the Croatian State Commission for Relations with United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR).

He was the High Representative of the Ministry of Defense, and since May 13, 1993, representative of the Ministry of Defense in the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and Croatian Defence Council (HVO).

From July 24 to September 8, 1993, Praljak was the Chief of Staff of the Croatian Defense Council. Among his decisions, the one to let through the UNHCR's humanitarian convoy for Mostar, which was stopped in Čitluk, was particularly emphasized.

He was also accused of ordering the destruction of Mostar’s 16th-century bridge in November 1993, an act that, according to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia “caused disproportionate damage to the Muslim civilian population”.

In November 1993, Praljak came into conflict with the commander of the HVO's Punishment Battalion Mladen Naletilić Tuta which resulted in Praljak's resignation from the positions of HVO's Chief of Staff.

After the war

After the war, Praljak became a businessman. He founded company Oktavian.

Since 2005, the company is managed by his stepson Nikola Babić Praljak. It has around 20 million kunas of revenue per year. Praljak was also a co-owner of Liberan, a company that has a share in Ljubuški Tobacco Factory.

ICTY indictment

Praljak was among six accused by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in relation to the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia.

 On 5 April 2004 he surrendered and was transferred to the ITCY. In his indictment it was alleged that Praljak as a senior military official commanded directly and indirectly the Herceg-Bosna/HVO armed forces which committed mass war crimes against Bosnian Muslim population in around 30 municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In his role as a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Defense he was closely involved in all aspects of not only the Herceg-Bosna/HVO military planning and operations but the actions of the Herceg-Bosna/HVO civilian police too.

Taken from the UN press release:

• nine counts of grave breaches of the Geneva conventions (wilful killing; inhuman treatment (sexual assault); unlawful deportation of a civilian; unlawful transfer of a civilian; unlawful confinement of a civilian; inhuman treatment (conditions of confinement); inhuman treatment; extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly; appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly).
• nine counts of violations of the laws or customs of war (cruel treatment (conditions of confinement); cruel treatment; unlawful labour; wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or destruction not justified by military necessity; destruction or wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion or education; plunder of public or private property; unlawful attack on civilians; unlawful infliction of terror on civilians; cruel treatment), and
• eight counts of crimes against humanity (persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds; murder; rape; deportation; inhumane acts (forcible transfer); imprisonment; inhumane acts (conditions of confinement); inhumane acts).

He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by the ICTY.

Private life

Praljak was married to Kaćuša Babić. The couple had no children, but Praljak was close to his two stepchildren Nikola and Nataša, who took his last name.

Death

On November 29, 2017, Praljak died from ingesting poison in front of the judge and in the courtroom, after losing his court appeal against a 20 year prison sentence for war crimes.