Pezinok (Slovakia) (AFP)
The wealthy businessman Marian Kocner accused of having ordered the murder of an investigative journalist in February 2018 which upset Slovakia was found Thursday not guilty of this crime by the court of Pezinok (west).
"The crime was committed but it has not been proven that Marian Kocner and Alena Zsuzsova ordered the murder," said judge Ruzena Sabova, who presided over the court.
"The court therefore acquits the defendants," she said, adding that Mr Kocner was fined 5,000 euros for unauthorized possession of weapons, 60 bullets having been found at his home.
Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, both 27, were shot dead in their home in a mafia-type execution after Kuciak wrote several articles about high-ranking corruption and Marian Kocner's relationship with political leaders of the country.
According to the prosecution, the businessman ordered the murder of Kuciak in revenge for articles detailing his various crimes in the real estate field.
In his last plea in July, Mr Kocner dismissed the charges.
The double murder plunged the country of 5.4 million people into crisis and sparked the biggest street protests since the fall of communism.
Then-prime minister Robert Fico was forced to resign in March 2018 and was replaced by his deputy from the left-wing populist party Smer-SD, Peter Pellegrini.
Of the five suspects indicted in this case, two have confessed their guilt and have already been convicted.
Zoltan Andrusko, an intermediary in the murder, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in December 2019 after making an agreement with the prosecution.
Former soldier and hitman Miroslav Marcek was sentenced in April to 23 years in prison for having shot the couple.
© 2020 AFP