News digest: Supreme Court reverses Kočner's acquittal in the Kuciak murder case

Good evening. The Tuesday, June 15, 2021 edition ofToday in Slovakiais ready with the main news of the day in less than five minutes. We wish you a pleasant read.

In today's digest

Kočner and Zsuzsová to be tried again in Kuciak murder trial
Man succumbs to injuries caused by bear
Record number of people interested in new passport

Kočner and Zsuzsová to be tried again, the Supreme Court decided

(source: TASR)

The Supreme Court cancelled the acquittal of Marian Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová in the case of the murders of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová, issued by the Specialised Criminal Court in Pezinok in September 2020. This means that the first-instance court will have to deal with the case again.

The Supreme Court now said that the Specialised Criminal Court decided in the case prematurely.

“It did not properly ascertain the factual situation, did not deal with all the circumstances of the case, did not clearly justify its decision, did not take all the necessary evidence into consideration,” Judge Peter Paluda read in an explanation. “The evidence was evaluated in contradiction with the law, from which an incorrect legal conclusion occurred, resulting in an acquitting verdict.”

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Bear killed a man

Illustrative stock photo (source: TASR)

A man found dead in the forest near the village of Liptovská Lúžna in northern Slovakia on June 14 was killed by a bear, as an autopsy has confirmed.

It is the first case in the modern history of Slovakia where a bear attack resulted in the death of a human.

The state-run Lesy SR forestry company blames the Environment Ministry, claiming that it does not want to regulate the bear population, and warns that the encounters between bears and people will become more frequent. The ministry responded that there has never been any problematic bear reported in the village.

An intervention team has meanwhile registered 20 reports on bears who came close to municipalities across Slovakia.

Coronavirus and vaccination news

Laboratories carried out 6,014 PCR tests on Monday,49 of which were positive. The number of hospitalised patients increasedby 45 to 288. Five deaths were confirmed.
There are currently 71,000 people waiting for the first Covid vaccine jab in the online waiting room, and almost 5,500 waiting for the Sputnik V jab.

Picture of the day

The winter closure in Tatra National Park (TANAP) ended on June 15. Visitors will now be able to use all marked hiking trails, including passages through alpine saddles and routes leading to tourist-accessible peaks.

(source: TASR)

Feature story for today

Despite the overall slowdown on the real estate market, its outlook remains positive. The retail sector was the hardest hit due to shops closing during lockdowns, while the industrial and logistics sector was the least influenced. The pandemic keeps on affecting the real estate sector in 2021. Predictions are positive, with the sustainability trend playing an increasing role in investors’ decisions.

In other news

President Zuzana Čaputová met with her US counterpart Joe Biden at the NATO Summit in Brussels. Biden appreciated the progress Slovakia has made, Čaputová described.

The GLOBSEC Bratislava Forum 2021 started on June 15, with several keynote speakers, including Pope Francis, Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová and her Polish and Croatian counterparts.

Interior Minister Roman Mikulec (OĽaNO) faced an ousting attempt initiated by the opposition on Tuesday. A day before, the cabinet and its head, PM Eduard Heger (OĽaNO), expressed their full support for the minister.
5.22 million people participated in the 2021 census. During the two phases (online and assisted), 92.7 percent of the estimated number of inhabitants were counted.
A record number of people are interested in a new passport. Last week, a six-year record in the number of expedited passports was recorded, with 750 issued in two days.
Inflation sped up its dynamics in May 2021, for the fourth month in a row, with prices growing by 2.2 percent year-on-year, mainly driven by fuels in annual terms, according to the Statistics Office.
More than 60 percent of Slovaksplan to take a holiday this summer. They want to return to the European beaches, but pandemic-related fears are still preventing some of them fromtravelling abroad.
Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Korčok (SaS nominee) and his counterpart from Northern Macedonia, Bujar Osmani, opened theEmbassy of Northern Macedonia in Bratislava today. It became the 45th foreign embassy in Slovakia, the third from the Western Balkan countries.