Court Acquits All Defendants Accused of Attempted Murder of Klaus-Volzova (2)

Bratislava, 24 September (TASR) - Former TV Markiza general director and ex-economy minister Pavol Rusko has been acquitted of the attempted murder of former co-owner of the television channel Sylvia Klaus-Volzova by Bratislava Regional Court, TASR learnt on Wednesday. An appeal by the prosecutor and the aggrieved party, Klaus-Volzova, has thus been dismissed by the court on the grounds that Rusko's actions did not constitute preparation for murder. The court also acquitted his three co-defendants: boss of the 'Sykorovci' crime gang Robert 'Bucket' Lalis, former Banska Bystrica mob boss Mikulas Cernak and Milos Kastan. The verdict is final, but none of the acquitted came to hear it. "The preparation, as alleged in the context of facts that the appellate court found unproven, did not reach the level of a crime meeting the attributes of preparation as laid down by the Criminal Code," explained the Court's senate chair Karol Kovac. He clarified that "whenever anyone presents the thought of possibly liquidating someone and does so in the presence of people who carry out such activities, but it remains only as a thought spoken out loud, this cannot be considered as ordering such activity, even if the people to whom this thought was presented might have perceived it that way". Had Cernak not been placed in custody at that time, Klaus-Volzova would have been murdered, stated the aggrieved party's legal counsel Roman Kvasnica. According to prosecutor Ladislav Masar, the verdict is unexpected: "Basically, the regional court said that the defendant, Mr. Rusko, did everything he could to ensure that his intention to eliminate another person would be carried out. Unfortunately, he was addressing people who had no real intention of doing so, and that is what actually saved him," said the prosecutor. Rusko's and Lalis's lawyer Marek Para claims that the court's decision constitutes the outcome of what the defence have been demonstrating all along, namely that the crime did not take place and that Rusko and Lalis are not guilty. In September 2023, Bratislava I City Court acquitted all of the four accused, but the decision was appealed against by the prosecutor and the aggrieved party. Cernak and Kastan admitted their guilt, but Rusko and Lalis did not. According to the indictment, in the autumn of 1997 Pavol R. ordered the murder from Cernak, who allegedly involved the Bratislava-based Sykorovci gang in it. According to the indictment, Rusko's motive for ordering the murder was financial gain and control over the television channel. Rusko was previously sentenced to 19 years in prison in the case regarding the counterfeiting of Markiza TV promissory notes. In September, he was acquitted of charges related to subsidy fraud concerning the case of the Lighthouse of Hope NGO. jrg/df