Prosecutor: Container Croat drank from held deadly chemical

A deadly chemical was in the container from which a Croat war criminal drank shortly before dying, a Dutch prosecutor said Thursday, as an independent investigation into the dramatic death of Slobodan Praljak moved forward.

"There was a preliminary test of the substance in the container and all I can say for now is that there was a chemical substance in that container that can cause death," Prosecutor Marilyn Fikenscher told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. She declined to elaborate on the exact nature of the substance.

In this photo provided by the ICTY on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017, Slobodan Praljak brings a bottle to his lips, during a Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Praljak yelled, "I am not a war criminal!"  (ICTY via AP)

Praljak, 72, stunned the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on Wednesday when he gulped down liquid from a small bottle seconds after a U.N. appeals judge confirmed a 20-year sentence against him.

The wartime commander of Bosnian Croat forces said in court that he had taken poison. He was rushed to a Hague hospital but died there, tribunal spokesman Nenad Golcevski said.

Praljak's lawyer, Nika Pinter, said Thursday that she never expected him to kill himself and does know how he obtained the fatal liquid given the court's strict security.

Slobodan Praljak enters the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017.(Robin van Lonkhuijsen,Pool Photo via AP)

Pinter described Praljak to Croatia's Hina news agency as "an honorable man who could not live with the war crimes conviction and leave that courtroom handcuffed."

Praljak was originally convicted in 2013 of crimes including murder, persecution and deportation for his role in a plan to carve out a Bosnian Croat ministate in Bosnia in the early 1990s.

Fikenscher said that an autopsy, including toxicological tests, will be carried out soon on Praljak's body.

Bosnian Croat people, gather to light candles and pray for Gen. Slobodan Praljak, in southern Bosnian town of Mostar 140 kms south of Sarajevo, on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. Praljak yelled, "I am not a war criminal!" (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said Thursday that Praljak wanted to send a message to the U.N. court that the verdict against him was unjust. Plenkovic said the former general was "obviously shaken by the possibility he would be convicted" of war crimes for his actions during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Fikenscher said the Dutch investigation will look into how Praljak managed to take the small bottle of poison into the tribunal's tightly guarded courtroom.

Golcevski on Thursday declined to comment on the security situation at the court or its detention center, saying that, "there is an independent investigation ongoing and ... these are issues that will likely be addressed by that investigation." He also would not give details of who had visited Praljak in the days and weeks before Wednesday's events, citing privacy considerations.

Slobodan Praljak enters the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017.(Robin van Lonkhuijsen,Pool Photo via AP)

A lawyer who has frequently defended suspects at the war crimes court told the AP that it would be easy to bring poison into the court.

Prominent Serbian lawyer Toma Fila said security for lawyers and other court staff "is just like at an airport." Security officers inspect metal objects and confiscate cellphones, but "pills and small quantities of liquids" would not be registered, Fila said Wednesday.

In this photo provided by the ICTY on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017, Slobodan Praljak brings a bottle to his lips, during a Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Praljak yelled. (ICTY via AP)

Praljak was a Bosnian Croat writer and film and theater director turned wartime general. His indictment said he also worked as a professor of philosophy and sociology.

He was among six Croats whose prison sentences ranging from 10-25 years were confirmed by appeals judges on Wednesday. The five-judge U.N. panel overturned parts of their convictions but upheld the majority and agreed with trial judges who ruled that the crimes were part of a "joint criminal enterprise" with links to late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and other top Croat officials.

Bosnian Croat people, gather to light candles and pray for Gen. Slobodan Praljak, in southern Bosnian town of Mostar 140 kms south of Sarajevo, on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017.(AP Photo/Amel Emric)

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — An attorney has been added to the special prosecution team that is pursuing an involuntary manslaughter charge against actor Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the Western movie “Rust,” court officials confirmed Thursday.

The district attorney for Santa Fe has appointed Erlinda Johnson as special prosecutor to the case, which is scheduled for trial in July. She was sworn in Tuesday.

Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge in the shooting of Halyna Hutchins during an October 2021 rehearsal at a movie-set ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for “Rust,” was pointing a gun at Hutchins during rehearsal when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

Johnson's experience as a criminal defense and personal injury attorney include representing former New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran, who resigned in 2015 amid revelations she used campaign funds to fuel a gambling addiction. Duran received a 30-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to embezzlement and money laundering charges.

Johnson previously worked as a federal prosecutor on drug enforcement and organized crime investigations after serving as assistant district attorney in the Albuquerque area.

Prosecutors are turning their full attention to Baldwin after a judge on Monday sentenced movie weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to the maximum of 18 months at a state penitentiary on an involuntary manslaughter conviction Hutchins's death.

Prosecutors said Gutierrez-Reed unwittingly brought live ammunition onto the set of “Rust,” where it was expressly prohibited, and failed to follow basic gun safety protocols. She was convicted by a jury in March.

Defense attorneys for Baldwin are urging the judge to dismiss the indictment against him, accusing prosecutors of “unfairly stacking the deck” in grand jury proceedings and diverting attention away from exculpatory evidence and witnesses.

Special prosecutors deny those accusations and accuse Baldwin of “shameless” attempts to escape culpability, highlighting contradictions in his statements to law enforcement, to workplace safety regulators and in a televised interview.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed wipes her tears at her sentencing hearing in state district court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Monday, April 15, 2024. Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on the set of the Western film "Rust," was sentenced to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was fatally shot by Alec Baldwin in 2021. (Luis Sánchez Saturno/Santa Fe New Mexican via AP, Pool)

FILE - This aerial photo shows the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Oct. 23, 2021, used for the film "Rust." A New Mexico judge Monday, April 15, 2024, sentenced “Rust” movie armorer to 18 months in prison for fatal on-set shooting by Alec Baldwin. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)