The lawyer Petar Sale told a news conference outside the Osijek County Court that his client "was murdered, not in a classical way but by the system".

General Brodarac was held in custody, although there was no need for it, and we proposed what the Croatian law requires, that the detention should be a last resort, Sale said.

According to the lawyer, the entire documentation about Brodarac's health condition was forwarded to the court, his client was examined in the hospital where it was established that he was suffering from hypertension, diabetes and that he took more than 12 pills a day. Nevertheless, he was in a cell with another six inmates at temperatures above 40 degrees centigrade.

"It was logical to expect such an outcome and I am sure they expected it too and knew that it would happen. All the responsibility for this murder lies on this state and its penitentiary system, because it's really a shame to keep national heroes in such inhumane conditions," the lawyer said.

Sale added that he was now waiting for necessary documentation and the findings of an autopsy, which would be also checked by experts in Zagreb. He said that the Brodarac family would decide on the next moves.

Asked whether there were grounds for suing the state, the lawyer said that it was up to the family of the deceased to decide on further steps. He said he had last seen Bordarac on Monday an that he was "in a rather poor condition".

The Osijek County Court said on its web site on Wednesday that Brodarac had died in the intensive care unit of the Osijek hospital earlier in the day. Brodarac was transferred from the prison to the hospital's cardiological unit on Tuesday afternoon and was taken to the intensive care unit around midnight.

An autopsy has been ordered.