A panel of judges in Slovakia has acquitted a businessman accused of masterminding the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancée.
Judge Ruzena Sabova delivered the verdict
Thursday in Peznikok's special criminal court. The judges acquitted the
businessman, Marianne Kocner, and journalist Jan Kuciak and fiancée Martina Kusnirova,
both accomplices in the murder.
A third defendant was convicted and
sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the murder’.
The prosecution can still appeal.
Kuciak was shot’ in the chest and on
February 21, 2018, in the head of his home in the eastern city of Velka Maca in
Bratislava.
Kuciak was writing about the alleged links
between the Italian mafia and people close to the then prime minister when he
was killed’.
His alleged accomplice, Alena Zsuzsova, was
acquitted’. On Thursday, two murder suspects accused an investigative
journalist and his fiancée of murder, a crime that shocked the country and
brought down the government.
The state prosecution has sought 25 years
in prison for the three defendants, including a businessman who was sentenced’
to death and two accomplices.
All of them are not guilty of killing
journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina
Kusnirova, both
27 years old.
Judge Ruzena Sabova, who handles
Slovakia's most serious cases, handed down the verdict in Pezinok special
criminal court on Thursday.
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