Businessman Marian Kocner has been charged with ordering the 2018 murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak, who had uncovered his corrupt business dealings. Kuciak, 27, was killed alongside his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova, also 27, when she was caught in the crossfire at their home.
Prosecutor Vladimír Turan has proposed severe sentences for Kocner’s alleged accomplices, Alena Zsuzsova and Tomas Szabó, who are accused of helping Kocner orchestrate the killing. The murder, reportedly ordered for 70,000 euros (about $81,000), is believed to have been an act of retaliation for Kuciak’s reporting on Kocner’s criminal activities.
The prosecutor’s proposed sentence is the second most severe available in Slovakia’s legal system, just below a life sentence, which is reserved for exceptional cases.
Kocner, a businessman with a history of corruption and blackmail, was revealed in an OCCRP investigation to have used illicit means to maintain control over Slovakia’s judicial system for decades. His trial, initially scheduled months earlier, was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kuciak’s murder has had far-reaching consequences in Slovakia. It led to the downfall of several high-ranking officials, including 13 judges who were arrested for obstructing the investigation, and the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico in 2018. The country witnessed a surge in anti-corruption protests following Kuciak’s death, demanding justice and systemic reform.
In a moving conclusion to the trial, Daniel Lipšic, the Kuciak family’s lawyer, read a statement from the late journalist’s editor-in-chief, Petr Bárdy. “Ján Kuciak was the embodiment of good,” Lipšic quoted, “He did his work not for money, but for a higher principle – for good and justice. He worked to make Slovakia a better country, and that is why he died.”
The verdicts for the trial are expected to be delivered on July 31 and August 5, 2020.
