[10][11] At first, Praljak worked as a professor and manager of the electronics laboratory at the Nikola Tesla Vocational High School in Zagreb, then lectured on philosophy and sociology,[10] and after 1973 was a freelance artist.

He directed the television series Blesan i Tulipan (Blesan and Tulipan), television dramas Novela od Stanca (Prank for Stanac) and Sargaško more (Sargasso Sea), documentaries Smrt psa (Death of a Dog, 1980), Sandžak (Sanjak, 1990) and Duhan (Tobacco, 1990), and film Povratak Katarine Kožul (Return of Katarina Kožul, 1989).

[2][13] Praljak was accused of failing to prevent the armed forces from committing many crimes of which he was informed and that he could foresee, including removing and placing in detention the Muslim population of Prozor from July to August 1993, murders in Mostar municipality, the destruction of buildings in east Mostar (including the mosques and the Old Bridge), attacking and wounding of members of international organisations, the destruction and looting of property in Gornji Vakuf in January 1993, Raštani in August 1993, and Stupni Do in October 1993.

[15] Praljak was accused of ordering the destruction of Mostar's Old Bridge in November 1993, an act which ICTY ruled had "caused disproportionate damage to the Muslim civilian population".

He said that the bridge was demolished by activation of the explosive charge set on the left bank of the Neretva, where the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina was located.

[10][18] In addition to the responsibility and whether it was a legitimate military target, ICTY also examined whether the earlier siege by JNA and Bosnian Serb forces contributed to the bridge's collapse.

[4] In his indictment it was alleged that Praljak as a senior military official commanded, directly and indirectly, the Herzeg-Bosnia/HVO armed forces which committed mass war crimes against Bosnian Muslim population in eight municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina during a joint criminal enterprise between 1992 and 1994.

In his role as a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Defence, he was closely involved in all aspects of not only the Herzeg-Bosnia/HVO military planning and operations but the actions of the Herzeg-Bosnia/HVO civilian police too.

[4] On 29 November 2017, the ICTY trial was concluded finding him guilty, and although some parts of his conviction were overturned, the judge did not reduce the initial sentence of 20 years.

[37] Andrey Shary for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty noted that "Praljak's samurai final act might evoke respect or sympathy", but "individual perceptions of honor don't always coincide with correctness".

[3] Writing in The Daily Telegraph, journalist Harry de Quetteville opined that the defiant suicide was "the most dramatic proof possible of a very uncomfortable reality: many in the Balkans refuse to accept that the horrific ethnic cleansing of the 1990s was wrong".

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković stated that Praljak's suicide illustrated the "deep moral injustice towards the six Croats from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian people".

[42] Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović expressed her condolences to Praljak's family, calling him "a man who preferred to die rather than live as a convict for crimes he did not commit".

[6] Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić said he would not mock Praljak's suicide but has criticized the reaction of Croatian officials, stating that it would have been unacceptable for him to praise a convicted war criminal as a hero or to denounce an ICTY verdict.

[45] The Serbian politician Vojislav Šešelj commented that, although he was an enemy, it was a "heroic move worthy of respect" and there should have been more such strong blows to the tribunal.

The event was attended by two thousand people, including Government ministers Damir Krstičević and Tomo Medved (as private citizens), a number of MPs, mostly from the Croatian Democratic Union party, and some retired army officers that participated in the 1990s war.

During the same day, members of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights made a commemoration for the victims of Croatian forces urging condemnation of that period policies.

[48][49] President Grabar-Kitarović has been pressured to take away wartime decorations from Praljak and other convicted officials, but she refused to do so stating that they received it for "defence against Serbian aggression", adding that "such practice has not been implemented so far, except in the case of verdicts made by the Croatian courts".

[51] Praljak's lawyer Nika Pinter suggested that he may have committed suicide because he could not accept being convicted as a war criminal and that the act had long been planned.