A court in Slovakia has acquitted for a second time an executive accused of masterminding the 2018 killing of an investigative journalist and his fiancee.
The specialised criminal court in Pezinok, near the capital, Bratislava, which handles Slovakia’s most serious cases, ruled on Friday that Marián Kočner was not guilty of murdering Ján Kuciak, who had written about him in the past, and Martina Kušnírová, both 27.
The crime shocked the country and caused the government to fall.
The court said “it was not proven” that Kočner was the mastermind. Nevertheless, Kočner’s associate, Alena Zsuzsova, was convicted over her role in the killings and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The case is not yet over, as the prosecution and the defendants can appeal.
Prosecutors had requested life imprisonment for both defendants.
The parents of Kuciak and Kušnírová left the courtroom before the reading of the sentence was completed. “There’s no logic in it,” the journalist’s father, Jozef Kuciak, told reporters. “I don’t get it at all.”
“Of course, we’ll appeal,” Zlata Kušnírová, Martina’s mother said. “It’s impossible what happened. It’s a shame for justice.”
Kuciak was shot in the chest and Kušnírová was shot in the head at their home in the village of Veľká Mača, east of Bratislava, on 21 February 2018.
Kočner allegedly threatened the journalist after publication of a story about his business dealings, prosecutors said. Overall, Kuciak published nine stories about Kočner.
The killings prompted large street protests not seen since the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution in what was then called Czechoslovakia. The ensuing political crisis led to the collapse of a coalition government headed by the hard-right prime minister Robert Fico.
Kuciak had been investigating possible government corruption when he was killed.
It was the second time the Pezinok court had ruled in the case. Originally, it acquitted Kočner in September 2020, saying there was not enough evidence for the convictions. The prosecutors appealed.
Slovakia’s supreme court dismissed the acquittal in June 2021, saying the lower court did not properly assess available evidence when it cleared Kočner and Zsuzsova, and ordered a retrial.
Three other defendants were previously convicted and sentenced to stiff prison terms.
One of them, the former soldier Miroslav Marček, pleaded guilty to shooting Kuciak and Kušnírová and was sentenced to 23 years in prison in April 2020. Prosecutors said Kočner paid Marček to carry out the killings.
In the meantime, Kočner was sentenced to 19 years in prison in a separate forgery case while Zsuzsova received 21 years in prison for her role in the killing of a mayor.
Those verdicts are final.
In December 2019, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Kočner and six of his businesses for threatening Kuciak.
