STS: Defendant Marian K. Claims He's Never Ordered Murder (2)

Pezinok, 9 March (TASR) - Marian K. [name abbreviated due to legal reasons], who is facing charges of ordering the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak, as well as the planned murders of prosecutors, stated at his main trial at the Specialised Criminal Court (STS) in Pezinok (Bratislava region) on Monday that he's never ordered a murder. "I've never ordered a murder. I've never tasked anyone with carrying out such an act. I've never used violence in my life," claimed Marian K. According to him, none of the accusations in the indictment are true. "I never gave Alena Zs. or anyone else money to carry out these acts. It isn't true," he stressed. According to the defendant, communications from the Threema application shouldn't be used to fill gaps in evidence, and the law-enforcement authorities have adopted a biased approach when interpreting the content. Prosecutor of the Prosecutor-General's Office Peter Kysel has declined to evaluate Monday's interrogation in detail. "The defendant denied committing these acts from the beginning, so the testimony is in that spirit," said Kysel. He didn't want to comment on the defence's tactics, either. "That's not my role; I can only evaluate that in my closing arguments," he said. Roman Kvasnica, lawyer of bereaved mother Zlatica Kusnirova, believes that Marian K. is starting to portray himself as a victim. "This is yet again laying the ground for claims that the media are pushing Slovak courts towards convicting Marian K. We all respect his rights, we all respect the way he speaks in court, and we'll prove that the indictment was filed on justified grounds," Kvasnica told the media, adding that no one has and no one will ever put any pressure on the courts. The defendant's lawyer Marek Para stated that his client explained in his testimony the meaning behind the Threema messages. "You can always find an isolated message that could mean something when interpreted in a certain way. But from a chronological perspective, all these 'murder codes' have been refuted. My client has explained all the circumstances, and there is no direct evidence, nor a series of unquestionable indirect pieces of evidence linking him to the murder in any way," Para told the media. Marian K. and Alena Zs. are facing charges of ordering the murder in February 2018 of investigative journalist Kuciak, whose fiancée Martina Kusnirova was also killed. Two previous verdicts were overturned by the Supreme Court, and the case is now before STS for the third time. The men who carried out the murders, Miroslav Marcek and Tomas Szabo, were previously each sentenced to 25 years in prison, while Zoltan Andrusko received a 15-year prison sentence. Concerning the case of preparing the murders of the prosecutors, Dusan K. and Darko D. are also facing charges. According to the indictment, the order for the murders of incumbent Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka and prosecutor Daniel Lipsic came in the autumn of 2017. In the case of prosecutor Peter Sufliarsky, the order allegedly came in 2018. No murders were carried out, however. NOTE: This story has been extended to include paragraphs 3 to 7 jrg/df