Kuciak murder trial

(source: Sme)

Investigative reporter Ján Kuciak was killed in his house in Veľká Mača. His fiancée Martina Kušnírová was shot dead along with him. Very soon after their dead bodies were discovered on February 26, 2018, the police said that the murder was most likely linked to Kuciak’s journalistic work. Unlike most cases of murdered journalists in the world, the police detained and charged not just the persons whom they believe to have fired the shots, but also those who ordered the murder.

The trial with Marián Kočner, Alena Zsuzsová, Tomáš Szabó and Miroslav Marček started on January 13, 2020.

Zoltán Andruskó, who has admitted to having acted as the middleman between those who ordered the murder and those who executed it, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on December 30, 2019 in a separate proceeding, based on his plea bargain deal. He has thus become an important witness in the case against the four persons.

Hitman Miroslav Marček pleaded guilty on the first day of the trial. His case was then singled out for a separate trial. Marček was finally sentenced to 25 years in prison in December 2020.

On September 3, 2020, the senate of the Specialised Criminal Court delivered its verdict in the case. Szabó has been found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in a maximum-security prison. Marian Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová were acquitted of charges related to the murders.

• Who was Ján Kuciak and how did he become a journalist?

• What was the development on the Slovak political scene in the immediate days after the murder?

• Slovakia: Timeline of events during the first year after the murder

• Who are the people charged in the murder case?

• How the trial went in its initial days (overview)

• Read more about how the Kuciak case changed Slovakia

• The doubts that played in favour of Kočner (analysis of the verdict)