ZAGREB, Aug. 3 Xinhua) -- The lawyer of Josip Perkovic, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a German court, said on Wednesday his client would appeal the verdict.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Higher Regional Court in Munich found the Yugoslav-era Croatian intelligence official Perkovic and his then colleague Zdravko Mustac guilty of the murder of a Yugoslav dissident Stjepan Durekovic in 1983 and sentenced both of them to life in prison.
The lawyer, Anto Nobilo, said the ruling was not based on the facts and it was unfair. "We will start consultations in order to request revision as soon as possible," he was quoted by Croatian News Agency Hina as saying.
Mustac, 74, a head of the Croatian branch of the Yugoslav State Security Service (SDS), and Perkovic, 71, the head of the department responsible for emigration, were accused of complicity in the murder of Durekovic in a garage in the town of Wolfratshausen, nearby Munich in 1983.
"The motive for the removal of Djurekovic was his hostile actions (against Yugoslavia) and involvement in a fraud at (Croatian energy company) INA," according to the court.
Djurekovic, also a Croat, was the marketing director of state-owned energy company INA before fleeing to Germany in 1982.
He was murdered to stop him from disclosing an alleged illegal business dealings of INA, involved high-ranking Yugoslav officials, according to local media.
Both Mustac and Perkovic had denied the charges. They were extradited to Germany in the first half of 2014.
