Lawyer Milenko Skrlec told Hina that his client now had the right to request to be released on parole because he had served four and a half years in prison, which is more than half of the eight-year term.
Skrlec said that in the notification he had received from the Ministry of Justice there was no explanation of the president's decision. "That is not necessary under the law, because it is an act of mercy," he added.
Grandic, Mirko Norac and Tihomir Oreskovic, members of the so-called Gospic Group, were found guilty of murder of at least 50 Serb civilians in the Gospic area of central Croatia in October 1991.