MUNICH: Two former Yugoslav intelligence chiefs went on trial in Munich on Friday, charged with masterminding the murder of a Yugoslav dissident in the southern German state of Bavaria more than three decades ago.

Croats Josip Perkovic, 69, and Zdravko Mustac, 72, top officials in the communist-era Yugoslav secret service, are accused of planning the murder of Stjepan Durekovic, also a Croat, who was found dead of gunshot wounds and head injuries in a garage in the town of Wolfratshausen in 1983.

“Durekovic belonged to a group of leading Yugoslav dissidents living in what was then West Germany, who were the targets of a systematic assassination program by the Yugoslav secret services,” prosecutor Wolf-Dieter Dietrich told a Munich court.

Prosecutors allege that Durekovic’s murder was ordered by a leading Yugoslav politician. Durekovic’s dissident activities may have appeared to be the motive for his murder, but the politician actually wanted to prevent Durekovic from disclosing his son’s illegal business dealings in the state-owned petrol company INA, according to the indictment.

Durekovic once ran the INA before leaving for the West.

Dietrich said Mustac had passed on the assassination order to one of his deputies, Perkovic, who then contacted an agent active in Germany.

That agent, the owner of the garage who had managed to win Durekovic’s confidence, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany in 2008 for his part in the murder. At the time, the court established that 22 Croats were murdered in West Germany, at the behest of the Yugoslav leadership.

If convicted, Perkovic and Mustac could face life imprisonment. Both declined to comment on Friday, but have previously denied the charges. They showed no emotion in court.