PEZINOK, Slovakia – The alleged mastermind of a Slovak investigative journalist’s murder is due to stand another retrial on Monday, eight years after the crime rocked the central European country.
Jan Kuciak, a journalist investigating high-level corruption linked to influential businessmen and top politicians, was shot dead with his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, both 27.
Their deaths sparked the largest protests in Slovakia since the fall of communism, leading to the resignation of the government of Robert Fico, although the nationalist returned to power in 2023.
Accused of ordering the killing, businessman Marian Kocner — who Kuciak investigated — has twice been acquitted but Slovakia’s Supreme Court has annulled both decisions.
The latest retrial is to start with a hearing at a special criminal court in the city of Pezinok near the capital, Bratislava, at 8:30 am local time.
The parents of both victims are expected to attend, according to lawyer Peter Kubina, who represents Kuciak, with 43 hearing dates scheduled.
Kocner, 62, has denied ordering the killing of Kuciak in the village of Velka Maca in February 2018.
“I am not a saint, but I am not a murderer either,” Kocner said in 2020 in a statement in court.
Kubina told AFP he does not expect the defendant to change his stance, “as he has repeatedly declared his innocence in the past”.
Kocner is being re-tried together with alleged accomplice Alena Zsuzsova, 51.
Three others have been sentenced over the crime, including two hitmen, serving 25 years in prison.
