The families of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová after the verdict. (source: Sme - Marko Erd)
Last Week in Slovakia is a commentary and overview of news in Slovakia that The Slovak Spectator subscribers receive in their inboxes every week as part of The Slovak Spectator online subscription. Subscribers also receive a pdf with an overview of news and have access to all of our online content. By subscribing you are helping us provide news about Slovakia you can trust. Thank you.
The people suspected of ordering the murder of Ján Kuciak, who was killed in February 2018 together with his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, were pronounced not guilty of the deed. The verdict of the Specialised Criminal Court, delayed by one month since early August, has dominated the news in Slovakia since it was delivered on Thursday.
The murder of a journalist in Slovakia has thus not become one of the rare cases when not just the hitman but also other masterminds get punished for the crime. The verdict has already been appealed and the Supreme Court can now return it back to the Specialised Criminal Court. The investigation of the case will resume.
But even though it is not final and can still change, the verdict has had and will have consequences going well beyond the case itself. Here is what we can say about the aftermath of the verdict so far:
