( CNN ) -- Two top Croatian commanders previously convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Balkan wars were acquitted Friday . The International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia ordered the release of Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac and reversed all of their convictions . Read more : Genocide count dropped in Karadzic trial . Gotovina and Markac participated in an ethnic cleansing operation in Croatia 's Krajina region between July and September 1995 , the court ruled last year.. Gotovina , a general who commanded Croatia 's Split military district during the mid-1990s war that led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia , had been sentenced to 24 years in prison . Markac , who headed the Interior Ministry 's Special Police , received an 18-year prison term . Read more : Ratko Mladic : Brutal villain to many , hero to others . But the court 's Appeals Chamber found errors in the ruling , including the failure to find `` the existence of a joint criminal enterprise '' intent on permanently and forcibly removing Serb civilians from the Krajina region . Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic 's office issued a statement criticizing the development . `` The tribunal has made a political decision and not a legal ruling . This will continue to destabilize the situation in the region and it will open old wounds , '' the statement said . CNN 's Per Nyberg and Joe Sterling contributed to this report .
The case stems from the fighting in Serbia 's Serbia region . Mladen Markac commanded a military district ; Ante Gotovina headed a police unit . Krajina 's president calls the action `` a political decision and not a legal ruling ''