Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák in the foreground and Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok during a press conference in Bratislava on May 19, 2024. (source: SITA/Tomas Benedikovic)
Poet Juraj C., who shot and injured Premier and Smer party leader Robert Fico last week, might not have had any accomplices after all. Facebook announced that the platform itself had deleted the attacker’s profile “the night after the incident” and shortly after it identified Juraj C.’s profile.
The Meta company, which owns Facebook, confirmed the aforementioned for the Denník N daily. The tech giant deleted the attacker’s profile because it had violated its rules on dangerous organisations and individuals.
Last weekend, Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok (Hlas), and Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kaliňák (Smer), claimed that Juraj C. might not have acted alone. Someone deleted his Facebook profile “two hours after the attack”, they claimed. By that time, Juraj C. had been in detention. For now, this was the only reason why they have shifted from the lone wolf theory to the opinion that more people could have been involved in the attack.
According to the newspaper, Meta passed on this information to the Council for Media Services, a media regulator in Slovakia, on May 21. The regulator said that Meta deleted Juraj C.’s profile on May 16, a day after the attack.
Meta did not specify the hour.
“At this moment, it is theoretically still possible that someone intervened in Juraj C.’s Facebook profile on Wednesday, roughly two hours after the assassination [attempt, ed.], and Meta intervened the next day,” writes Denník N.
Facebook’s move is something else
According to Kaliňák, Juraj C. could still have had accomplices, adding that people from Facebook may not have been the only ones who accessed the profile of Juraj C.
“This matter [Facebook deleting the profile] is not related to accessing the profile that we mentioned on Sunday,” interim spy chief Pavol Gašpar said on May 22.
Kaliňák noted that there is more information suggesting that the attacker might have had helpers.
Google cancels Juraj C.’s YouTube channel
The General Prosecutor’s Office has embargoed the case and refused to provide any information. Nevertheless, ministers continue to present different interpretations of who else might have been involved in the attack on the prime minister.
It is not clear if Juraj C. has appealed against the judge’s decision of being taken into pre-trial custody last Saturday.
Denník N wrote on May 23 that Google had cancelled Juraj C.’s YouTube channel after the attacker was identified by the police.
