Slovakians commemorate murder of assassinated investigative journalist Kuciak

Slovakians commemorate murder of assassinated investigative journalist Kuciak
Slovaks commemorate murdered journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova who were killed on February 21, 2018 / wiki
By bne IntelliNews February 22, 2019

Slovakia commemorated the first anniversary of the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova who were assassinated a year ago on February 21.

Kuciak is believed to have been killed in connection with his last article for Aktuality.sk covering alleged tax fraud connected to the luxury Five Star Residence in Bratislava and the suspicious activities of businessman Marian Kocner and his links to the ruling political party Smer-SD.

The President Andrej Kiska does not consider the situation in Slovakia to have significantly changed for the better. “I'd like to praise investigators and the police for having probably captured the murderers and for the fact that, in all likelihood, we know the identity of the murderer and also have an inkling about who was at least one of the persons who ordered the murders. Of course, all of us wish to see all these connections behind the murders revealed,” he said, the Slovak News Agency (SNA) reported. So far, four people have been charged in connection with this case.

He stressed it's important to restore public trust in the state, by making the influential officials and powerful face investigation and prosecution, if they commit any crimes.

“Throughout that year, however, other things came to light. It turned out that they were planning the murder of a prosecutor and the murder of a politician that a former member of the Secret Intelligence Service was spying on journalists - even Jan Kuciak. It turns out that a potential go-between, one of the persons involved in the murders, became a kind of confidant and even darling of some of our politicians,” Kiska added.

“Our demands have been in place for one year now. We're still calling for the murders of Jan and Martina to be investigated and for a trustworthy government,” said the representatives of the For a Decent Slovakia initiative Karolina Farska and Juraj Seliga, according to SNA.

Jan Kuciak's father, Jozef Kuciak, criticising politicians of the governing coalition, considers sad that his son was under surveillance by former secret service agents and was screened in police databases. “The protests cannot cease when they discover the name of the person who ordered the hit. This is because something has created that individual, some environment that made him feel beyond the reach of law,” he told the media.

The Kuciak´s cases led to resignation of the Prime Minister Robert Fico a year ago.

 

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