[1] Later, he was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes committed during Operation Storm by Croatian forces against the Serbs from Croatia.

[2] On 16 November 2012, his conviction was overturned on all charges by the appeals panel at the ICTY, and he was immediately set free to a hero's welcome in Croatia.

[8] On 15 April 2011, Mladen Markač was found guilty by the ICTY and sentenced to 18 years in jail for war crimes, including murder, persecution and plunder.

[10] The night before, candle-lit vigils were held across Croatia, including at Roman Catholic churches, while several thousand people were expected to watch a live 9:00 broadcast on a giant screen in Zagreb's Ban Jelačić Square.

Roman Catholic bishop Vlado Košić had called on his flock to "raise their voice against injustice regarding the generals and Croatia" and to pray "for a fair verdict.

The President, Ivo Josipović, said that Markač and Gotovina spent eight years in prison while innocent and thanked them for their sacrifice for Croatia.

[16] Ivan Šimonović, former Croatian minister of justice and present assistant of the UN's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said that this verdict will have an important role in interpretation of certain regulations and in definition of the standard of the international criminal law.

Mirjan Damaška, a law professor at Yale University, stated he was pleased but not just because of Gotovina and Markač, but because the theory about the "joint criminal enterprise" would have historical, political and legal complications for Croatia.

[19] However, Veselin Šljivančanin, a former officer of the Yugoslav People's Army convicted of war crimes perpetrated during the Battle of Vukovar, congratulated both generals on their release, blaming the politicians for what he calls war crimes committed during the Operation Storm, namely the president Franjo Tuđman.

The president of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Živko Budimir, congratulated Gotovina and Markač on their "another victory" referring to them as "respected comrades, dear friends, our heroes.

[24] Rhodri C. Williams, a human rights consultant, stated "to treat the Gotovina judgment as an absolution of Croatia's well-documented sins is patently absurd and will only complicate the way to a long overdue regional reckoning with the past.