Weekly Briefing, Vol. 32, No. 1 (SK), September 2020
Investigation of the Murder of Journalist – Ján Kuciak Murder Trial
Marian Kočner, Alena Zsuzsová, Tomáš Szabó and Miroslav Marček. These are the names of charged people from the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his partner Martina Kušnírová. The prosecutor of the Special Prosecutor’s Office filed criminal charges against them on October 21, 2019. The investigators believe that Kočner ordered the murder and paid an unknown sum later when the killers found out that they had killed a journalist and his fiancée. Zsuzsová was his closest collaborator, and she is believed to have acted as the go-between who ordered Zoltán Andruskó to carry out the murder.
The four persons indicted for the murder face 25 years in prison. Andruskó started collaborating with the police shortly after he was detained, and he has already signed a plea bargain. His case was heard on December 30, 2019, besides the trial with the four indicted people. The preliminary hearing of the trial took place on December 19, 2019. One of the main points was the discussion about a possible plea bargain. Neither the prosecutors nor any of the charged individuals showed interest in closing a deal like that. The judge has excluded the Threema transcripts, which had been widely reported on in Slovak media over the past few months, as evidence against the defendants so far.
Surprisingly, the Special Court has acquitted Slovak businessman Marian Kočner in the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him. The court also found co-defendant Alena Zsuzsová not guilty of involvement in organizing the murders owing to lack of evidence.
The Kočner Case
The delay in the verdicts on three of the central players allegedly involved in the murder of the young journalist Ján Kuciak in 2018 was disappointing, but the sordid affair had already proved a major turning point for Slovak society. Following the biggest murder investigation in the history of independent Slovakia, two people involved in the brutal killing of Ján Kuciak and his fiancée pled guilty and were sentenced to long jail terms, while three more, including prominent businessman Marian Kočner, were due to hear their verdicts on September 3, 2020. The horrific assassination of the 27-year-old journalist, targeted for his investigative work, has already shaken Slovakia’s media, society and politics to their core, with its ramifications continuing to be felt today.
The killings of Kuciak and his architect fiancée Martina Kušnírová confirmed many people’s worst fears about the existence in Slovakia of a web of organized crime, oligarch power and political mafia that had enmeshed every corner of the country. Kuciak and Kušnírová, who were planning to wed, were shot with a 9mm gun in their home after 8pm on February 21, 2018. Their bodies were found by the police five days later, with the news igniting the biggest protests in Slovakia since the Velvet Revolution of 1989. A group of students and the couple’s friends founded an initiative, For a Decent Slovakia, and in the weeks after the murder, demonstrations calling for a proper investigation and for the resignation of top government and police officials broke out across the country.
The biggest protest, in Bratislava in March 2018, attracted over 60,000 people. And despite the then-prime minister Robert Fico’s attempts to link the movement with philanthropist George Soros and the opposition, he was eventually forced to step down. Two years of investigation, aided by Europol, revealed a story fit for a true crime television series. Vladimír Turan, the special prosecutor overseeing the case, termed it a battle of right vs. wrong.
The prosecution has accused Kočner, who with his two co-defendants deny any wrongdoing, of hiring a “paparazzi team”, comprised of former intelligence agents and police officers, to spy on 28 Slovak journalists, including Kuciak. Kočner had also planned to launch a new political party. However, investigative articles written by Kuciak for Aktuality.sk allegedly risked exposing Kočner’s fraudulent business deals and corrupt connections to the courts and police, posing a threat to his carefully curated impunity. Kuciak’s investigations could have endangered as much as 100 million euros in deals for Kočner. According to witness statements and direct evidence, Kočner had been supporting Alena Zsuzsová, another person accused of orchestrating the murder, for years, buying her expensive cars and luxury holidays. Zsuzsová, in turn, was devoted to Kočner.
In 2017, Kočner allegedly ordered the contract killing of a prosecutor, Maroš Žilinka, through Zsuzsová, and later the murder of Kuciak, who was supposed to be kidnapped. Zsuzsová allegedly asked her longtime friend Zoltán Andruskó to find the assassins, and he hired two former military and police officers for the job. The three killers received more than 70,000 euros for Kuciak’s killing, but they never managed to finish the job on the prosecutor. After the police arrested the group in September 2018, Andruskó testified that it was Kočner who had ordered Kuciak’s murder and admitted he was the middleman. In December 2019, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In January, one of the shooters, Miroslav Marček, pled guilty in court and was sentenced to 23 years.
The verdicts on the three other defendants – Kočner, Zsuzsová and Tomáš Szabó – were supposed to have come from the Special Court in Pezinok on September 3, 2020.
The Murder Trial
Marian Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová were acquitted of charges related to the murders of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová. The court said on September 3 that the deed happened, but it has not been proven that they committed the crime. Tomáš Szabó and Marian Kočner have been found guilty of the unauthorized carrying of weapons.
Kočner was given a financial sanction of €5,000 and an alternative punishment of five months in prison if he fails to pay the fine. Tomáš Szabó has been found guilty of murdering Kolárovo entrepreneur Peter Molnár, and of involvement in the murder of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová. He was sentenced to 25 years in a maximum-security prison.
It is uncommon in Slovakia for a court president to comment on the work of a senate in public. The still-new president of the Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok, Ján Hrubala, lived up to the pledges he made when he was appointed and held a press conference to offer some explanation of what Slovakia has witnessed in his court today. He said we had heard a reasoned and long verdict explaining why the court made such a decision. However, he added they might have erred. On the other hand Hrubala is convinced that the verdict was not the result of sloppy work.
A court has found businessman Marian Kočner not guilty of ordering the killing of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée in 2018. The judges found that prosecutors had failed to prove Kočner and a third defendant had ordered the killings. It means that the crime was committed, but it has not been proved that Marian Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová ordered the murder. The court therefore acquits the defendants.
The judge had not even finished reading out her verdict when relatives of Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová left the courtroom. Speaking in front of the courthouse, Kušnírová’s mother Zlatica Kušnírová told the media of her disbelief at the verdict. She hoped they would not be released. She does not understand the court’s decision, but it is bad. According to her it seems that justice has not yet begun to reign in Slovakia. She added that she and her family would continue to fight the decision in the country’s Supreme Court. Jozef Kuciak, the father of the murdered journalist, said he hoped the court would take into account new evidence submitted by the prosecution.
The verdict drew reaction from the top state representatives as well as international journalistic and media freedom organizations. President Zuzana Čaputová admitted she was shocked by the verdict and added she believes the families of the murdered couple deserve to see those who ordered the murder bear the consequences of their deeds. Prime Minister Igor Matovič wrote he believed justice still awaits the people who are behind the murder. Journalists and particularly the colleagues of Ján Kuciak from Aktuality.sk did not hide their disappointment, while international media freedom watchdogs called for an end to impunity. Politicians, non-governmental sector and journalists ask for the fight for justice to continue.
Marian Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová have been acquitted of the charges pertaining to the murder of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová, but this is most unlikely to be the end of the case. The prosecution can still appeal against the verdict and present new evidence. Kočner and Zsuzsová were labelled as the persons who ordered the murder by the key witness in the case, Zoltán Andruskó, who has admitted to his participation in the murder and has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, the court did not see his testimony as sufficient evidence to rule Kočner and Zsuzsová guilty. The explanation of the head of the senate of the Specialized Criminal Court, Ružena Sabová, was that the court could not reliably and beyond doubt decide that the deed was committed by defendant Kočner and defendant Zsuzsová.
Following procedure, the prosecutor has 15 days to file a complaint, starting from the day after the verdict was delivered. As it turned out, the prosecutor filed the appeal against the acquittal on the spot. It means that case is not over and there is still a chance to get justice.