Lawyer Vlatko Nuic, who represents Mirko Norac who is serving a term for war crimes, told reporters on Sunday that he would soon request an early release of his client from prison.
The request for Norac's release will be soon forwarded given that by February Norac will have served two third of his sentence.
Norac is serving his 15-year term in the Lipovica-Popovac detention facility.
The lawyer said that the provisions of the Croatian legislation and of the UN war crimes tribunal's (ICTY) legislation enable the early release after two thirds of the sentence is completed.
Norac was sentenced to 12 years in jail for war crimes in Gospic and later was given six years for war crimes in the area of Medak. These sentences were combined into a single 15-year term. He has been in jail since 2001.
Nuic said today he expected that the same criteria to be applied in the case of his client as it was in the cases of people convicted by the ICTY tribunal, based in The Hague.
In September 2010, President Ivo Josipovic signed the decision to take away Norac's major general rank because he was found guilty of war crimes against civilians.
In October, Norac lodged a lawsuit with the Croatian Administrative Court against the decision of Croatian President and military Supreme Commander Josipovic to strip him of the rank of major general, Norac and his defence team believe that there are several reasons to declare Josipovic's decision unlawful. The plaintiff holds that the entire procedure in stripping Norac of rank was conducted incompetently and unlawfully and that the rank could not be taken away from him in the way president Josipovic did it.
