The trial commenced with the presentation of the indictment which charges Prates with providing Josip Perkovic, who was a high-ranking Yugoslav agent at the time, with keys to a garage in Munich which Stjepan Djurekovic used after emigrating from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to Germany.
Djurekovic, who used to be a senior manager of the oil company INA, left the SFRY for political reasons after the Yugoslav authorities dubbed him a dangerous Croatian nationalist.
Djurekovic was killed in June 1983 in the said garage in which he had printing machines to publish his works.
According to the indictment, Prates, who let him use the garage earlier, lured Djurekovic into the garage under the pretext of an agreement on publishing one of his books.
When the victim entered the facilities, unknown perpetrators, who had received the keys from Perkovic shortly before the crime, ambushed Djurekovic and shot him dead.
Today, the indictee spoke about his life in emigration and his contacts with the then secret Yugoslav police.
The trial will continue tomorrow.
The main hearing is to take 20 days, while a ruling is expected to be delivered in late May.