The three men left the penitentiary in Popovaca, about 60 kilometres east of Zagreb, shortly after 6am, before the arrival of reporters and camera crews.

Norac has been in prison for more than 10 years, since March 2001. He was initially sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for war crimes in the Gospic area, and later to six years for crimes in the Medak Pocket. When the second verdict became final, the Supreme Court imposed on him a single prison sentence of 15 years. In September 2010, President Ivo Josipovic, acting in his capacity as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, stripped him of his rank of general.

Petrac, who before his trial had been on the run for more than a year, was sentenced to seven and a half years for the abduction of the son of retired general Vladimir Zagorec and for the extortion of businessman Miroslav Matkun of Novi Marof. His sentence would expire in March 2013.

Petrac served his term in several prisons. While in the Lepoglava penitentiary, contrary to prison rules, he enjoyed many privileges to which he was not entitled, due to which former warden Stjepan Loparic and his assistant Neven Putar were sentenced pending appeal to 20 and 14 months in prison respectively. Petrac testified in the trial of retired general Vladimir Zagorec, who was found guilty of taking USD 5 million in jewels from a Defence Ministry safe when leaving his post of assistant defence minister in 2000. Petrac was the first to make allegations about the jewel theft in the trial for the kidnapping of Zagorec's underage son.

Sulic was sentenced in 2007 to seven years in prison for defrauding the Croatiabus transport company of 15.5 million kuna, and the Supreme Court later reduced his sentence to five years. In April this year he was sentenced pending appeal to two years in prison for acquiring an apartment worth more than half a million kuna through fraudulent activities to the detriment of Croatiabus.

The Justice Ministry's Parole Board has granted them parole after serving more than two thirds of their sentences. They will serve the rest of their sentences outside prison subject to rules set by the Parole Board.