Premier Has No Plans to Get Involved in Assassination Attempt Trial

Bratislava, 10 July (TASR) - Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) has said that he isn't planning to get involved in the court proceedings in the case of the assassination attempt on him, reiterating that he's forgiven the attacker, TASR has learnt from his post on a social network. However, the premier thinks that the attacker was an opposition activist. In this context, he claimed that the media and opposition are spreading hatred and that he therefore fears another attack. "I didn't actively intervene in the investigation, and won't do so even at the stage of the court proceedings. In court, I'm represented as an aggrieved party by a well-qualified lawyer, David Lindtner. I believe that I won't even need to be questioned in court because the court played the recording of my questioning as part of the evidence," he stated, adding that he hasn't been traumatised by the attack. "And I continue to carry out my duties as prime minister with the same intensity," he emphasised, reiterating that he has forgiven the accused Juraj C. (name abbreviated due to legal reasons) and won't demand anything from him. The attacker, he said, is a product of the opposition. "It would be fair and right if all those who produced the attacker were sitting next to him in the courtroom without charges," he said, again speaking about the media and opposition politicians spreading hatred. According to him, it is therefore only a matter of time before another attack happens. "And I'm expressing my wish in advance that there will be as much luck for us as I had in my misfortune," he added. The trial of defendant Juraj C., who shot and seriously wounded the premier in Handlova (Trencin region) on 15 May of last year, began this week and has been adjourned until August. am/df