Tens of thousands flocked into Zagreb's main square on Friday for a welcome reception for acquitted generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac who were cleared of all charges by an appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Friday morning.
Markac was in the Scheveningen detention centre since 11 March 2004, and was released provisionally on several occasions. Until this Friday, 16 November 2012, he had spent a total of 2060 days in detention, or slightly over five and a half years.
Gotovina was held in the Scheveningen detention centre since 10 December 2005 without an interruption, spending a total of 2540 days in custody, or nearly seven years.
The news about the acquittal of the two generals was welcomed with eruptions of joy in the main squares of all major Croatian cities and towns where a live transmission of the ICTY Appeals Chamber was organised on Friday morning
After announcing the acquittal, the ICTY appeals chamber ordered that the two generals be immediately released.
The generals were flown back from the Netherlands to Zagreb aboard a Croatian government plane.
