Supreme Court Annuls Verdict in Jan Kuciak Murder Case

Bratislava, May 20 (TASR) - The Supreme Court has annulled the Specialised Criminal Court's verdict in the case of the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak in 2018, involving the accused Marian K. and others, returning the case to court due to errors in the ruling, and it will now be decided by a different senate of the Specialised Criminal Court, TASR learnt from Supreme Court spokesperson Alexandra Vazanova on Tuesday. "At today's closed session, the Supreme Court, in the criminal case against Marian K. and others, annulled the verdict of the Specialised Criminal Court and returned the case due to errors in the contested ruling, specifically, unclear factual findings, the failure to present all necessary evidence to fully establish the facts of the case, and the Specialised Criminal Court's failure to address all circumstances relevant to the verdict," explained Vazanova. The Supreme Court also assigned the case to a different senate of the Specialised Criminal Court for hearings and a verdict due to the failure to follow a binding instruction set out in a previous Supreme Court ruling. The decision was made by a majority vote with a ratio of 2:1. In May 2023, a senate of the Specialised Criminal Court acquitted Marian K. of charges related to ordering the murder of Jan Kuciak as well as the case concerning the planned murders of prosecutors. Alena Zs. was found guilty and sentenced to a combined 25 years of unconditional imprisonment. In the case of the planned murders of current Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka and former prosecutor-general Peter Sufliarsky, Dusan K. was also found guilty, while the accused Darko D. was acquitted. Journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova were murdered in their house in Velka Maca [Trnava region] on February 21, 2018. The most probable motive according to the police was Kuciak's work as an investigative journalist. Three sentences were handed down in the case, with the perpetrators of the murders Miroslav Marcek and Tomas Szabo serving 25 years in jail and Zoltan Andrusko 15 years. lin/df