The decision on Sljivancanin's release was made on 5 July and the document was classified. However. the information about this was made public after he left the prison.
Sljivancanin is "granted early release and shall be released from the custody of the Tribunal as soon as practicable and once the administrative procedures have been completed," reads the decision signed by the ICTY President, Judge Patrick Robinson, who ordered the lifting of confidentiality of this decision after Sljivancanin's departure from the penitentiary.
The practice of the UN tribunal in The Hague is to release convicts after they have served two thirds of their terms.
"I consider that, while the gravity of Mr. Sljivancanin's crimes is high, the time that he has served in detention and his demonstration of some rehabilitation militate in favour of his release. I am therefore of the view that Me. Sljivancanin should be granted early release," Robinson said in the decision.
In his request for early release Sljivancanin expressed "remorse for the terrible events which took place not only in Vukovar but all over the territory of the former Yugoslavia" but he "does not express remorse for his own crimes" which is why the ICTY president concludes that the rehabilitation of this former JNA officer has not been complete.
Sljivancanin was convicted for the Ovcara atrocities against Croatians, perpetrated in November 1991, and in 2007 the trial chamber sentenced him to five years, while the appeals chamber raised this sentence to 17 years. However, in 2010, this UN tribunal revised this sentence to 10 years, which was the first time for the tribunal to revise a final judgement.
The reduction of the prison term for the Ovcara atrocities triggered off outrage in Croatia just as his early release has shocked residents of Vukovar.
Sljivancanin was arrested in Belgrade on 13 June 2003, and transferred to the Scheveningen detention centre of the ICTY tribunal on 1 July 2003. The trial commenced on 11 October 2005.
He was released from detention in December 2007 after he served 90 percent of the five-year sentence ruled by the trial chamber. He was brought back to Scheveningen on 4 May 2009, a day ahead of the rendering of the appeals chamber's final judgement when he was given 17 years.