The verdict is not final, the hopes of the relatives rest on that day. Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová’s parents want to appeal. For the second time on Friday, the Special Criminal Court in Pezinok ruled in the case of the double murder of the then 27-year-old journalist and his girlfriend – again the main suspect was acquitted. Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence for him.
A lot of private information about the former businessman Marian Kočner has become public in the past few years since the murder in February 2018. For example, he called Robert Fico, who was Prime Minister in 2018, “boss”. It was already known beforehand that Kočner was a shady entrepreneur who cultivated a variety of relationships with politicians. Ján Kuciak had researched and already published on this network of relationships. Kočner had threatened Kuciak, and the journalist himself reported it to the police. Nevertheless, the court again did not consider it proven that Kočner himself had planned and commissioned the murder. As became known during earlier negotiations, Kočner wrote in a text message about journalists: “You have to hit one of them properly so that everyone else calms down.”
Kočner had already been acquitted in September 2020. However, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict and ordered a new hearing based on further evidence. Kočner’s close confidante Alena Zsuzsová was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday. She was found guilty of plotting and ordering the murder of Kuciak, as well as plotting additional murders of two prosecutors. She had previously been sentenced to 23 years in prison for contracting the murder of a local politician. Kočner is serving a 19-year prison sentence for bill of exchange fraud. He and Zsuzsová once again denied any guilt.
Marian Kočner at a court hearing in June 2021.
(PHOTO: RADOVAN STOKLASA/REUTERS)
In 2018, the double murder triggered the largest demonstrations in Slovakia since 1989. Prime Minister Robert Fico resigned, a year later the civil rights activist and lawyer Zuzana Čaputová was elected president, and in spring 2020 Fico’s party lost the parliamentary elections and had to go into opposition.
Fico continues to chair the nominally social democratic Smer-SD. He first attacked the government’s corona policy and called for anti-vaccination demos. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he has been spreading anti-American slogans and siding with Putin. The government, on the other hand, is supporting Ukraine with extensive arms deliveries. Early elections will be held in Slovakia on September 30, and Fico is leading the polls with 18 percent of voters.
Ján Kuciak would have turned 33 on Wednesday. Kočner turned 60 on the same day. Even if he will probably not be released again until he is in his mid-70s because of his conviction for fraud, that is not enough for the parents of the murdered woman. They want to go to the Supreme Court. Even before the verdict was announced, Kuciak’s father had told the Slovak media that he was less concerned with the amount of the sentence than with hearing a word of remorse.
After the acquittal, MEP Michal Šimečka told the daily that he was disappointed Dennik N. He is the leader of the liberal party Progresívne Slovensko. “As politicians and citizens, we must respect the court’s decision. At the same time, I fear that after this verdict, the terrible trauma will continue – for the victims’ parents, but also for Slovakia.”