Former Yugoslav spy chief charged with 1983 murder of dissident News
Former Yugoslav spy chief charged with 1983 murder of dissident

[JURIST] German federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged [press release, in German] Zdravko Musac, former head of the Yugoslavia secret service, with complicity in the 1983 murder of expatriate Yugoslav political dissident Stjepan Durekovic near Munich. Musac, now 72 years old, was extradited [Reuters report] to Germany from Croatia in April for allegedly giving the order to assassinate Durekovic. His former subordinate, Josip Perkovic, is also suspected of playing a role in the political killing and was extradited [JURIST report] to Germany earlier this year as well. Durekovic was a businessman who emigrated to West Germany in 1982 where he was active among Croatian nationalists opposed to the Yugoslav state. His actual killer was never found.

Investigations of war crimes related to the Yugoslav wars [JURIST news archive] are still ongoing, and suspects are still being arrested and prosecuted. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] in May upheld [JURIST report] the war crimes conviction of a former Croatian army commander. In March Dutch police arrested [JURIST report] a man accused of participating in ethnic cleansing against the Croats during the Yugoslav wars. In January the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] upheld [JURIST report] the criminal convictions of four Serbian war criminals, while reducing the sentences of three of them. However, the ICTY overturned [JURIST report] the war crimes convictions of ex-Yugoslav army chief Momcilo Perisic in February 2013.