He was best known for allegedly helping the Black Hand in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand,[1] which initiated World War I. Rade Malobabić was one of the high-profile members of the 53 defendants tried for High Treason in Zagreb between 1907 and 1909.
The subsequent appeal being successful and the parallel Friedjung Process proving the evidence against Malobabić and his fellow defendants to have been fabricated led to the state dropping the charges and releasing all 31 remaining accused in 1910.
[4] He is noteworthy as the only person accused of specific involvement in the assassinations of June 28, 1914, not to have been named by a single defendant nor by any of the counsel in the Sarajevo trial - indeed the only individual to ever link Malobabić to the murders is Apis and only then in his third and final statement on the matter 11 April 1917.
[2] Statement of Colonel Dimitrijević 11 April 1917: "As the Chief of the Intelligence Department of the General Staff, I engaged Rade Malobabic to organize the information service in Austria-Hungary.
On this occasion, I did not mention my intention for the assassination, and my motive for asking his opinion about Russia’s attitude was the possibility that Austria might become aware of our activities, and use this as a pretext to attack us.