Slovakia: the murderer of journalist Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnira sentenced to 25 years

Jan Kuciak

• Slovakia: the alleged killers of journalist Ján Kuciak and his girlfriend arrested

• Slovakia, center-right anti-corruption opposition party wins elections

Share

03 September 2020The court of Pezinok, a city in Slovakia, about 20 km north-east of Bratislava, has recognized Tomas Szabo, to be one of the killers of the Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kusnira, and sentenced him to 25 years of imprisonment.

Marian Kocner, suspected of being the instigator of the murder and the intermediary Alena Zsuzova were released.

The Slovak court found the very wealthy businessman Marian Kocner not guilty of having ordered the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak.

The double homicide struck the country of 5.4 million people and sparked the largest street protests since the fall of Communism.

The prime minister of the time, Robert Fico, was forced to resign in March 2018 and was replaced by his party deputy, the left-wing populist Smer-SD, Peter Pellegrini.

The wave of protests and social discontent then led to a new center-right government led by Igor Matovic of the anti-corruption party OLaNO.

"The deaths of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova opened the eyes of the Slovak people," Matovic told AFP in February.

The former Minister of Justice, Daniel Lipsic, representative of the murdered couple, during the trial argued that Slovakia was "apathetic" before the double murder.

"The murders woke up Slovakia", which shook the nation and brought down longtime premier Robert Fico.

The court sentenced the perpetrator of the murder, but found no evidence that the attack was ordered by businessman Marian Kocner, at the center of the investigation.

The double murder of Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kusnirova, both 27, was carried out in a mafia-like manner.

The couple was shot and killed in their home outside Bratislava in February 2018. A murder that closely resembled the murder in Malta four months earlier of another corruption-investigating journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Prosecutors said that for Kocner, the subject of Kuciak's journalistic investigation into the connections between business, corruption and politics, there were no elements capable of proving his responsibility in the murder.

The court also acquitted Kocner's friend, Alena Zsuzsova, accused of helping to organize the crime.

"It has not been proven that the act was committed by Marian Kocner and Alena Zsuzsova," said judge Ruzena Sabova.

The families of the victims left the courtroom soon after the verdict on Kocner as the judge continued to read the details of the decision.

The court sentenced another defendant, Tomas Szabo, to 25 years in prison for helping to carry out the murder.

Two others have already been convicted after admitting guilt.

One of them, a former soldier, received 23 years in prison for killing Kuciak and his girlfriend, while a fifth suspect admitted facilitating the murder and was sentenced to 15 years.

The investigation forced several politicians and senior judicial officials to resign due to their previous ties to Kocner.

Kocner, who is well known in Slovakian economic and political circles, has already received a 19-year sentence for counterfeiting € 69 million in banknotes, but has filed an appeal against that decision.