"It's scandalous that no prison official informed my father of the decision, but he had to learn about it from reporters," Abdic's daughter Elvira Abdic Jelenovic, who is a member of the parliament of Bosnia's Croat-Bosniak entity, told reporters.

Officials at the Justice Ministry would not comment on the case, with spokeswoman Vesna Dovranic saying the ministry could not comment on Abdic's status as long as he was in prison.

Abdic is in Pula serving a 15-year prison sentence for war crimes committed in western Bosnia and Herzegovina. After he served two-thirds of his sentence, his family in June this year requested that he be released on parole.

The Parole Board discussed the request on Monday evening for three hours, but would not reveal its decision. Pula County Court president Iztok Krbec said that the case was a professional and official secret and that the public would be informed of the decision at a later date.

The request for Abdic's release states that he will soon be 72, that he has health problems and that his conduct in prison has been exemplary. It also states that he was never on the run and did not use any benefits a prisoner is entitled to after having served a half of their sentence, like the possibility to leave prison for weekends or holidays or be transferred to a prison with a less strict security regime.

The Karlovac County Court in July 2002 sentenced Abdic for war crimes to a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, and the Supreme Court reduced the sentence to 15 years. Abdic was found guilty of having declared, contrary to the Bosnian constitution, the Autonomous Region of Western Bosnia, and of having organised, in his capacity as the supreme commander of local forces, prison camps for people who were against the establishment of the Autonomous Region of Western Bosnia. Around 5,000 people were detained in those camps and at least three died as a consequence of the torture they were subjected to there.