Slovakian Businessman Acquitted in Murder of Investigative Journalist, Fiancee

While the 2018 murders of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, shot dead at home, shocked Slovakia and terminated a government, the man accused of directing it was acquitted by a panel of judges on September 3rd.

The court said there was no enough evidence to find Marian Kocner and his acquaintance Alena Zsuzsova, who was accused as accomplice, guilty of the charge. Kuciak had filed a police report that Kocner threatened him for critical coverage of his business dealings. In addition to that, a witness had testified on Kocner ordering the killing.

The parents of Kuciak and Kusnirova left the courtroom before the reading of the sentence was completed.

“The only thing I can say is I’m disgusted,” the journalist's father, Jozef Kuciak, told reporters.

The International Press Institute, an international media freedom group based in Vienna, called the acquittals “a major setback for justice and the fight against impunity,” as attacks against journalists have mounted.

The killings of Kuciak and Kusnirova came four months after the car bomb murder in Malta of investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galiza, who was also looking into government corruption and criminal ties. Until today, no one has been convicted for her assassination.

International Press Institute Deputy Director Scott Griffen, who attended the trial, said “We are hugely disappointed by this verdict, which repeats a tragic pattern we see worldwide: the hit men go to jail while those ultimately responsible for the murder of journalists remain free.”

The court sentenced another defendant, Tomas Szabo, to 25 years in prison for helping carry out the murder. Already in April, former soldier Miroslav Marcek pleaded guilty to shooting Kuciak and Kusnirova. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Prosecutors said Kocner paid Marcek to carry out the killings but Judge Ruzena Sabova at the Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok found there was no proof.

Another defendant, Zoltan Andrusko, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a lesser sentence, receiving a 15-year prison term in December. He testified on Kocners involvement.

The verdict stunned and shook relatives of the victims who left the court even as the judge kept reading the explanation for the decision.

"I had planned to go to Martinka and Jan's grave to tell them that, finally, all who had done this to you will be punished. Unfortunately, as you see, this is impossible," a weeping Zlatica Kusnirova, the mother of Martina, told Czech Television outside.

Prime Minister Igor Matovic posted on Facebook that, "It seems that the apparent plotters of murder want to escape the claws of justice … Let's hope that justice awaits them both."

Slovakia's President Zuzana Caputova walked to a small memorial to Kuciak and Kusnirova at the site of the protests in the capital, Bratislava, to pay respect to them and said she was “shocked” by the verdict.