Szabo Refuses to Testify in Kuciak Case and Planned Murders of Prosecutors

Pezinok, 4 May (TASR) - Tomas Szabo, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for murdering investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova in 2018, refused to testify during Monday's main hearing held at the Specialised Criminal Court (STS) in Pezinok (Bratislava region) in the case of those accused of ordering the journalist's murder and planning the murders of prosecutors. In 2022, Szabo was also convicted in the case involving the planned murders of the prosecutors, to which he pleaded guilty. Szabo exercised his right to withhold testimony on the grounds that it could further incriminate him. Senate chair Miroslav Mazuch informed the court that Szabo filed an appeal in September 2024 against the verdicts finding him guilty in the Kuciak case. The Supreme Court hasn't yet ruled on this appeal. Szabo is currently serving his prison sentence in Ruzomberok (Zilina region). Dusan K. [name abbreviated due to legal reasons] was the only defendant appearing in court on Monday. As a defendant during the main hearing in June 2022, Szabo testified that the order to murder the incumbent prosecutor-general came from Zoltan Andrusko in the summer of 2017. He stated that if necessary, the prosecutor's family was to be eliminated as well. For this reason, he and Miroslav Marcek [who was also convicted of murdering Kuciak] decided to steer clear of it. After Szabo pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder the prosecutors and expressed regret for his actions, STS detached his case for separate proceedings in June 2022. He was found guilty of the planned murders in October 2022, but the court refrained from imposing an additional sentence, considering Szabo's 25-year prison term for the murder of the journalist and his fiancée and for complicity in the murder of businessman Peter Molnar to be sufficient. 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, Marcek and Szabo, were previously each sentenced to 25 years in prison, while 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. jrg/df