# Slobodan Praljak's Courtroom Suicide On November 29th, 2017, former Bosnian Croat general Slobodan Praljak drank poison from a small brown bottle at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague seconds after judges upheld his 20-year war crimes sentence. The televised moment shocked global news outlets, and within hours dark-humor posters were repurposing the footage as a reaction image for minor daily setbacks. ## Origin The source event happened on November 29th, 2017, when Praljak and five co-defendants appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to hear their appeals ruled on in the Prlić et al. case[1]. After presiding judge Carmel Agius affirmed the 20-year sentence for war crimes tied to the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict, Praljak stood up, declared "Praljak is not a criminal. I reject your verdict," drank from the vial, and was rushed from the room[2]. He was pronounced dead hours later at a Dutch hospital, and investigators sealed the courtroom while they tried to work out how the liquid had passed through security[1]. Catalyst event: November 29th, 2017 (the courtroom broadcast). Earliest known meme posts: later the same day, once screencaps of the vial moment began circulating on Twitter[6]. - **Platform:** Twitter / Reddit - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2017 ## Overview Slobodan Praljak's Courtroom Suicide is a reaction image drawn from broadcast footage of the 72-year-old former general tilting a small brown vial to his lips inside the appeals chamber at The Hague[1]. The frame most often used shows Praljak mid-swallow, white-haired and bearded, seconds before he announced through a translator, "I have taken poison"[2]. Because the moment was captured on a live tribunal feed, high-resolution stills were available almost immediately. The format is straightforward dark humor: pair the still with a caption describing a trivial personal grievance so absurdly minor that a fatal reaction reads as overkill. Early captions leaned on relatable overreaction jokes, while later variants slotted Praljak into existing formats like Pacha Edits and "Did Nothing Wrong" lineups[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Slobodan Praljak's Courtroom Suicide? It is a dark-humor reaction image built from broadcast footage of Croatian general Slobodan Praljak drinking poison in the dock at The Hague on November 29th, 2017[1]. ### Where did Slobodan Praljak's Courtroom Suicide come from? The source clip came from the live feed of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Prlić et al. appeal, and screencaps were repurposed as reaction images on Twitter the same day[2][6]. ### What does Slobodan Praljak's Courtroom Suicide mean? As a meme it means wildly overreacting to a trivial inconvenience, since posters pair Praljak's fatal gesture with captions about minor everyday setbacks[6]. ### How do you use Slobodan Praljak's Courtroom Suicide? Typically the still of Praljak tipping back the brown vial is captioned with an absurdly petty grievance, or he is slotted into existing templates like Pacha Edits and 'Did Nothing Wrong' lineups[7][8]. ### Is Slobodan Praljak's Courtroom Suicide still popular? No, the reaction image saw its heaviest use in late 2017 around the news event and is largely dead as an active format today[5]. ## References 1. [https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/nov/29/un-war-crimes-defendant-claims-to-drink-poison-at-trial-in-hague-slobodan-praljak]() 2. [https://www.npr.org/2017/11/29/567313548/war-criminal-dies-after-drinking-poison-in-court]() 3. [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-warcrimes-bosnia/bosnian-croat-war-crimes-convict-dies-after-taking-poison-in-u-n-court-idUSKBN1DT1E7]() 4. [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/world/europe/bosnian-war-croatia.html]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/slobodan-praljaks-courtroom-suicide]() 6. [https://twitter.com/BrandyLJensen/status/935902303911112704]() 7. [https://twitter.com/m2qm1i/status/935977507727204352]() 8. [https://www.reddit.com/r/dankmemes/comments/7gm3so/general_praljak_did_nothing_wrong/]() 9. [https://imgur.com/gallery/QojCo]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/slobodan-praljaks-courtroom-suicide Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library