Croatia has arrested a former intelligence official who is wanted by Germany on murder charges, ending a quarrel with the European Union over Croatia’s refusal to honour a European arrest warrant issued by Germany.

Josip Perković, a former official of Yugoslavia’s main intelligence service, UDBA, was arrested yesterday morning (1 January), just hours after new Croatian rules on European arrest warrants took effect. A court is now considering an appeal lodged by Perković against the decision to hand him over to Germany.

Perković is wanted by German prosecutors for the assassination in Bavaria of a Yugoslav defector in 1983.

Croatia amended its extradition law just days before joining the European Union on 1 July 2013, limiting the application of European arrest warrants to crimes committed after 2002. The change, and the secretive manner in which it was made, infuriated the European Commission and other EU member states, notably Germany, and prompted speculation that Perković was being shielded.

Perković became Croatia’s intelligence chief after the country gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

In September, Prime Minister Zoran Milanović gave in and pledged to remove the limitations on the European arrest warrant, which the Commission had said violated EU law.

Nine other people wanted abroad were also arrested yesterday. They include

Zdravko Mustač, Perković’s superior at UDBA. The intelligence service is thought to have committed numerous murders of Yugoslav dissidents abroad.

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