Predrag Fred Matic, SDP party's Member of the European Parliament and former Minister for Veterans, war veteran and hero of Trpinjska Cesta, died on Friday at the age of 62.

About ten days ago, the SDP confirmed that Matic had been hospitalised. “His condition is serious but stable,” it said at the time.

Predrag Fred Matic was born on 2 June 1962 in Pozega. He completed his primary and secondary school education in Borovo Naselje and completed a two-year degree at the Faculty of Education in Osijek in 1986, graduating as a primary school teacher. He worked at primary schools in Vukovar until 1990 before opening a private company.

in 1991, he joined the defence team in Vukovar on Trpinjska Cesta.

After the war, he was captured and imprisoned in three Serbian camps, where he was tortured and abused. From 1994 to 1998, he was head of the Office of General Affairs in the Cabinet of the Chief of Defence Staff.

From 2000 to 2004, he was spokesman for the same General Staff. In 2000, he became an advisor to the then Minister Jadranka Kosor. From 2008 to 2010 he was an external member of the Parliamentary Committee for Veterans and from 2010 he was an advisor to President Ivo Josipovic on veterans’ affairs. In 2011, he was appointed Minister for Veterans.

He lived in a non-marital partnership with his partner, Svetlana Patkovic, with whom he has a son, Sven.