Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic has ordered an inspection of the Osijek prison in order to see whether retired general Djuro Brodarac, who died in the Osijek hospital on Wednesday morning after being transferred from the local prison a day before, had been provided with adequate conditions, adding that the prison governor offered Brodarac to move him into a single-bed cell with better conditions but that he had turned down the offer.
Upon his arrival in the Osijek prison, Brodarac, suspected of war crimes in Sisak in 1991 and 1992, was examined and it was established that he had been suffering from hypertension and diabetes and taking over 12 pills a day. Brodarac and another two suspects in this case were taken to the Osijek prison three weeks ago.
"I believe that the Osijek hospital had taken all the necessary measures, however his health condition was such that he passed away this morning," Minister Bosnjakovic told a news conference in the justice ministry in Zagreb on Wednesday.
The minister said that he had talked with the prison governor who informed him that conditions of Brodarac's detention were above the average.
The prison governor had offered several times Brodarac to be alone in a single-bed cell instead of sharing a cell with other detainees, but Brodarac declined that possibility, saying that the cell in which he was held suited him.
According to the minister, Brodarac was kept in a 20-square-metre cell with five other inmates. This cell was with the fewest number of detainees in the Osijek penitentiary.
The minister said that the Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor required a report on the entire case in order to see whether there were omissions in the treatment of Brodarac.
The minister said that he was sorry about the death of Djuro Brodarac and he had sent condolences to his family.
"We are stricken by the sad news that Djuro Brodarac passed away this morning," he said.
