STS: Andrusko Continues to Incriminate Alena Zs. Regarding Kuciak's Murder

Pezinok, 25 May (TASR) - During the trial held at the Specialised Criminal Court (STS) in Pezinok (Bratislava region) on Monday, witness Zoltan Andrusko continued to incriminate defendant Alena Zs. [name abbreviated due to legal reasons] in terms of ordering the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak, testifying that she also ordered the murders of prosecutors from him, although these murders didn't take place in the end. Andrusko is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for acting as an intermediary in the journalist's murder. In his testimony, he said that he met Alena Zs. online in 2010, as she reportedly asked him for help when facing financial difficulties. He described their relationship as that of friends and claimed that it wasn't true he owed Alena Zs. money, except for €20,000, which he allegedly received as an advance for mediating the murder of incumbent Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka. According to him, Alena Zs. insisted that the murder must be carried out. "I told [defendant Dusan K. - ed. note] that nothing should happen to anyone. I didn't want anyone to be murdered," he said when explaining why, in his view, the murder of the prosecutor ultimately didn't take place. In his testimony he also described the circumstances under which the defendant allegedly ordered Kuciak's murder from him. "I approached [Tomas] Szabo and [Miroslav] Marcek with this. We met, and they took a day or so to think it over," added Andrusko, adding that the duo eventually decided to carry out the murder. He also shed light on the circumstances under which Alena Zs. allegedly handed over the money for the journalist's murder to him. Among other things, Andrusko claimed that police officers threatened him in the past with regard to economic matters and regarding the case of the planned murders of the prosecutors, telling him to "keep his mouth shut, or it would end up badly for him". He said he was also aware of the earlier murder of Laszlo Basternak, the former mayor of Hurbanovo (Nitra region). At the hearing on Monday, he claimed that, in the past, he was passed a message that allegedly originated from the-then police president, telling him to keep silent or he would end up like the former Hurbanovo mayor. 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. Concerning the case of preparing the murders of the prosecutors, Dusan K. and Darko D. are also facing charges in addition to Marian K. and Alena Zs. 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. Szabo, who confessed to preparing the murders, was lawfully convicted in 2022. jrg/df