The Hague tribunal said on Thursday it had granted Croatian general Milivoj Petkovic early release on the condition he complies with the rules of his early release for the remainder of his sentence, which include not discussing his case in public and not engaging in politics.

The decision to grant Petkovic early release was made on 16 December by Carmel Agius, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT), the successor to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The Chief of the Main Staff of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), Petkovic, as a participant in a joint criminal enterprise, was given a final verdict on 29 November 2017 sentencing him to 20 years in prison for crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He was convicted in a case in which six Bosnia and Herzegovina Croats were convicted for crimes against Bosnian Muslims committed in 1993-94.

The tribunal at the time sentenced to 25 years in prison former Herceg-Bosna Prime Minister Jadranko Prlic, while former Herceg-Bosna Defence Minister Bruno Stojic and former HVO Chiefs-of-Staff Slobodan Praljak and Milivoj Petkovic were given 20 years in prison each. Former Military Police Commander Valentin Coric was sentenced to 16 years, and the former head of the Office for Prisoner of War Exchanges, Berislav Pusic, to 10 years.

After the verdict was announced, Praljak said that he rejected and that he was not a war criminal, drinking poison from a bottle in the courtroom. He died later in a hospital in The Hague.

On 22 September 2020 Petkovic was transferred from the ICTY detention unit to serve his sentence in a prison in Belgium.

Under the MICT decision, Petkovic pledged that if granted early release, he would reside in Croatia and spend time with his family and his three grandchildren.

His sentence expires on 9 September 2027, when restrictions set by the decision on his early release will cease to be valid.

Petkovic’s attorney Vesna Alaburic confirmed for the Vecernji List daily on Thursday that her client arrived in Zagreb aboard a flight from Brussels on Thursday, after which he left for Split where his family lives.