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In the courtroom in Pezinok, near Bratislava, everyone must stand up when the judges render a verdict. But on Thursday, when the court delivered its verdict in what was probably the most spectacular criminal case in the country since 1989, one of them did not resist: the father of the murdered investigative journalist Ján Kuciak collapsed when the verdict was pronounced and asked for a glass of water. “Not guilty” was the decision of the House.
Márian Kocner, a sordid businessman who has been responsible for the attack for two years, and his accomplice Alena Zsuzsova could not prove the fact. Only one former police officer in the area was sentenced to 25 years in prison for complicity and another murder.
The verdict was a surprise and is a milestone in Slovak history. The country was considered exemplary compared to other Eastern European EU states: rapid democratic change, peaceful separation from the Czech Republic, investments mainly from the automobile industry, Flattax, Euro as early as 2009. But chasms opened behind the facade. The murder of Ján Kuciak and his fiancee in February 2018 highlighted the dire political situation in the country. The fact that the prime suspect has been acquitted is a severe blow to anyone hoping for reform.
September 11, 2001 Slovakia
The shots against Kuciak and Martina Kusnírová shook the small Carpathian region, just as half the world was once shocked by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001: many Slovaks still know where they were and what they were doing when they first met. the news. The murder came. Y: The attack revealed how democracy and the rule of law are in danger even 30 years after the end of communism.
The murderer who fired the fatal bullets at the couple’s home that February night was quickly caught and sentenced to 25 years in prison. But in the course of the investigation, Marián Kočner was quickly attacked. The man got rich mainly from shady real estate deals. He knew Kuciak because the journalist continued to fearlessly write about Kočner’s likely connections to the Italian mafia.
The case was particularly explosive because the investigation revealed that Kočner was closely associated with politics and the judiciary. Apparently he had access to the environment of the then head of government Robert Fico, he controlled judges and policemen, about whose private life he collected incriminating material. He called a secretary of state of the Ministry of Justice “my monkey” in the talks. 13 judges were arrested in March for corruption.
Hundreds of thousands of Slovaks took to the streets in Bratislava and other cities in protest against the corrupt network of politics, business and the demi-world, their motto: “For a decent Slovakia”. Fico eventually had to resign. The 2019 presidential election surprisingly won the civil rights lawyer Zuzana Caputová, a partisan alliance that grew out of the protests won the European elections. And that spring, Igor Matovic became prime minister, a politician who promised to comb his hair.
For lack of evidence
A verdict against Kočner would have been a major stage victory in the fight against nepotism, which developed after the end of communism and is still felt in many areas of life today. Unfortunately, that did not happen.
She was “shocked,” President Caputová said, but the decision had to be noted. The Interior Minister is also “shocked”, but, he said, the executive branch must recognize the decisions of the judiciary.
According to the grounds of the sentence, Kočner has not been acquitted because the court really believes that he did not commit the crime. He was acquitted because it simply could not be proven beyond doubt. A constitutional state, which Slovakia wants to be especially after the Kuciak assassination, has to decide for the accused in case of doubt. Even if the public opinion can find the verdict totally unfair. The Prosecutor’s Office, which had demanded 25 years in prison, immediately announced an appeal: “We lost a battle, but not the war.” The Slovak media reports confusion, excessive demands, disputes and misunderstandings in the three-person panel of judges from Pezinok, so the possibility of a proper trial in the Supreme Court may be good.
Relatives of those killed were shocked: “It is obvious that there is still no justice in Slovakia,” said Zlatica Kusnírová, mother of the murdered Kuciak bride and groom: “Our children are resting in their graves, and Kočner laughs a lot.” She should hardly be consoled that the defendants are not released for the time being: Kočner’s assistant is under investigation in connection with several other murders. The boss himself has already been sentenced to 19 years in prison only for economic crimes.
