Croatian Health Minister Darko Milinovic said on Wednesday evening that he had asked Osijek Hospital experts to thoroughly investigate the circumstances in which retired general Djuro Brodarac died this morning in the said hospital in eastern Croatia.
"Given the high public interest in this case, I requested an additional investigation and a special report of the hospital's internal control, although I am almost certain that the Osijek Hospital doctors have done everything in their power to save (Brodarac)," Milanovic told reporters.
He added that the internal control's report should be completed tomorrow, when the results of the autopsy are also expected to come in.
Milinovic said that Brodarac, suspected of war crimes in Sisak in 1991 and 1992, was transferred from the local prison to the Osijek Hospital on Tuesday morning in a very serious condition.
He was placed in the Intensive Care Unit where doctors did everything they could but unfortunately were unable to save him, Milinovic said, expressing confidence the report would show that the Croatian health system's reaction was adequate.
Brodarac and two other suspects in this case were taken to the Osijek prison three weeks ago.
The lawyer for Brodarac, Petar Sale, accused the state authorities and the penitentiary system for the death of his client.
Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic has ordered an inspection of the Osijek prison in order to see whether retired general Brodarac had been provided with adequate conditions, saying that the prison governor offered Brodarac to move him into a single-bed cell with better conditions but that Brodarac had turned down the offer.
