The Croatian lawyers who represented him at the Hague war crimes tribunal have no information about his release either, nor does Zagreb County Court, where Naletilic is on trial for the kidnapping of Robert Nosic in Ljubuski, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993, and incitement to murder Damir Brekalo in Siroki Brijeg, also in Bosnia, in 1995.
The Zagreb court only said no warrant was issued for Naletilic, which raises the possibility of Italy extraditing him not to Croatia but to Bosnia, where he lived until 1997, when he was arrested on the Croatian border for the Nosic and Brekalo crimes.
In order to summon him to trial after his release from the Italian prison, Zagreb County Court president Ivan Turudic, who has been in charge of Naletilic's case since 2010, asked the Justice Ministry where and when he will be transferred.
The Justice Ministry said the Hague tribunal should announce Naletilic's release and transfer. The tribunal's practice is to announce decisions on early releases only after they have been carried out. In any case, Croatian institutions will be notified by diplomatic route, which envisages a slower delivery.
The Italian news agency ANSA reported on Sunday that Naletilic, who has been serving his prison term in Rome, would be transferred to Croatia in the coming days.
Naletilic, whom the ICTY described as the founder and commander of the Bosnian Croat Convicts' Battalion, and Vinko Martinovic were put on trial in the same case before the ICTY and found guilty of war crimes against local Bosniaks in the wider Mostar area. On 31 March 2003, the ICTY sentenced Naletilic to 20 years and Martinovic to 18 years for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva conventions.
Naletilic was transferred to the Hague-based tribunal in March 2000 and has been behind bars since then. Martinovic was provisionally released in January 2012, having served two-thirds of his sentence, also in Italy. Although he lives in Bosnia, he was released from a Croatian prison and is coming to his trial in Zagreb from Mostar.