Murder of Ján Kuciak

Ján Kuciak (17 May 1990 – 21 February 2018) was a Slovak investigative journalist. Kuciak worked as a reporter for the news website Aktuality.sk and focused mainly on investigating tax fraud of several businessmen with connections to top-level Slovak politicians. He and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová, were assassinated on 21 February 2018 in their home in Veľká Mača, Galanta District, Slovakia.

Kuciak was the first journalist murdered in Slovakia since the country's independence. The murders caused shock and disbelief throughout the country, sparking mass popular protests and a political crisis, with the government of Prime Minister Robert Fico on one side, and President Andrej Kiska and opposition parties on the other. The crisis culminated on 15 March with the resignation of Prime Minister Fico and his entire cabinet, followed by the forming of a new cabinet led by Peter Pellegrini.

According to the prosecution's indictment, businessman Marian Kočner tasked Alena Zsuzsová with arranging Kuciak's murder, and she in turn tasked Zoltán Andruskó, who ordered Tomáš Szabó and Miroslav Marček to carry out the murder. Andruskó, a businessman from Chotín, admitted to ordering the murder, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Marček, a former soldier, admitted to shooting Kuciak and Kušnírová and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. His cousin Tomáš Szabó, a former policeman, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for participating in the murder.

The case is ongoing. On 20 May 2025, the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic decided that the case will be tried again by a new panel of judges at the Specialised Criminal Court. Provided by Wikipedia