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Josip Perkovic (left) and Zdravko Mustac (right) on trial in Munich. | Photo: Beta

According to the BND’s records, Djurekovic worked for German intelligence from 1975 to 1983, just months before he was shot dead in a garage near Munich where he printed anti-Yugoslav propaganda material.

Zdravko Mustac, who was the head of the Yugoslav state security service (SDB) at the time, is accused of giving orders to his subordinate Josip Perkovic to organise the assassination.

Wollwerth claimed that the victim had must been important to German intelligence, since “the BND was paying Djurekovic well”.

“Over the years during which he worked for the BND, Djurekovic amassed a rather large [amount of] wealth,” he said.

He explained that the BND advised Djurekovic to keep a low profile, but that he did not take that advice and became active in Croat emigre circles.

“Djurekovic believed that the BND could help him with the publication of books in which he criticised the Yugoslav regime at the time,” he said.

He also said that Djurekovic complained that he thought he was being followed by someone.

Ivan Bandic, who worked for the Mostar’s branch of SDB from 1987 onwards, also testified on Tuesday via video link from Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he works as the Croatian consul.

Bandic was asked about claims made by another former SDB official, Ivan Lasic, who told the Munich court las May that he was coerced into giving false evidence when he testified in 1992 to a Croatian parliamentary committee investigating crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.

Lasic alleged that the vice-president of the committee, Boze Vukusic, abducted him and kept him captive for 15 days in Mostar in June 1992 until he agreed to give false testimony.

Vukusic is also an important prosecution witness in the trial of Mustac and Perkovic, and told the Munich court in January last year that Perkovic tried to stop him investigating killings by the Yugoslav secret services.

The judge asked Bandic if a statement he gave to Croatian magazine Globus, saying that Vukusic abducted Lasic, was true.

“This is a free interpretation by a journalist, [from] an interview I did not authorise. The information about Vukusic kidnapping Lasic came to me through third [parties],” Bandic replied.

Bandic said that he “never received official information” about the abduction, “only rumours”.

The trial will continue next week, and the final hearings are expected to be held in May, although they could be prolonged until July.