Secret agent charged with aiding assassination

BERLIN - German state prosecutors have charged an agent of the former Yugoslavia's secret police with aiding the 1983 assassination of a Croatian dissident in Germany.

The dissident, Stjepan Durekovic, was found dead at a print shop in Wolfratshausen in 1983 after being bludgeoned and shot.

Prosecutors say a 56-year-old Croat living in Munich, identified as Krunoslav P, informed Yugoslav security services that Durekovic would be at the shop on the day of the murder and gave them a key.

Durekovic, one of the leading personalities of the immigrant Croatian community, was forced to flee to Germany at the height of the Cold War in 1982.

Prosecutors said Krunoslav P. worked for Yugoslavia's security services, collecting and passing on information about the exiled community to his handler, "Josip P", believed to be Josip Perkovic.

Germany issued an arrest warrant thtis year for Perkovic, offering a €5000 ($8550) reward for his capture.

- REUTERS