Businessman Kocner acquitted over journalist’s murder in Slovakia

A court in Slovakia has acquitted for a second time businessman Marian Kocner who was accused of masterminding the 2018 murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancée.

The Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok near the capital of Bratislava, which handles Slovakia’s most serious cases, ruled on Friday that Kocner was not guilty of murdering Jan Kuciak, who had written about him in the past, and Martina Kusnirova, both aged 27.

The court had reached the same verdict in 2020 citing lack of evidence, but the country’s Supreme Court later ordered a retrial. The new verdict can again be appealed.

Journalists at the trial reported that the victims’ families walked out of the court in protest.

Kuciak and Kusnirova were shot dead at their house outside Bratislava by hired hitman Miroslav Marcek, who was handed a 23-year sentence in 2020. Two other people involved in the murder have also been sentenced.

A fourth, Kocner’s associate Alena Zsuzsova, 48, was found guilty of the murders, as well as planning the murders of three prosecutors, and given a 25-year sentence on Friday.

“I absolutely don’t understand this. Zsuzsova found guilty, Kocner innocent,” Kuciak’s father, Jozef Kuciak, told reporters outside the court in comments broadcast by SME newspaper’s website.

Kocner, 60, has repeatedly pleaded not guilty.

Kuciak had investigated relations between politicians and business, including the Italian mafia. Kocner had verbally threatened Kuciak, who had investigated his business practices.

The murders sparked mass protests, forced long-term leader Robert Fico to step down as prime minister, and ushered in a new government in 2020 whose main election promise was to clean up corruption.