Slovakia murdered journalist Jan Kuciak: “A trial like a catharsis”

Almost two years after the assassination of investigative journalist Ján Kuciák and his fiancée, the first hearing of the accused will take place on Monday 13 January in a special criminal court near Bratislava. In the eyes of the media, this trial should serve to purify the Slovak state.

"2020 will be a year of hopes and fears," wrote the editor of New Years Eve, the editor of Aktuality.sk, the site Ján Kuciák worked for, posted on New Years Day.

Slovakia murdered journalist Jan Kuciak

And not only because of the February 29 parliamentary elections considered crucial to the future of Slovakia. “The beginning of the year will be marked by the first hearings in the trial of the assassination of Ján and Martina [Kušnírová]. With all the confidence we need to have in the court, we will be monitoring everything that goes on around this matter very carefully. ”

Two years soon after the gunshot death of the young reporter, 27, and his fiancée at their home, in February 2018, in a village about sixty kilometers from the capital Bratislava, Slovakia - whose inhabitants have long stayed in shock - and his media continue to wonder how it was possible to get there.

"The assassination of Ján Kuciák has, according to the accusation, an underlying political motive", however, Respekt reminds the many Czech readers who follow closely what is happening at the neighbour's house. "He died because he wrote texts that bothered mafia-style businessman Marian Kočner. He had multiple relationships

Slovakia. The mafia threatens the media with a war, it will have it

Writing about a colleague and friend who has been murdered by the Mafia is certainly the most difficult thing that can be in the work of a journalist, writes this Aktualitat.sk columnist after the murder of Ján Kuciak. But to be silent would be even more so, because that is precisely what his killers wanted.

We now know that Ján Kuciak and his partner, who were shot dead last weekend at their home in Velka Maca (a small town outside Trnava, western Slovakia), were not only the victims of a murder. It was an execution. The assassins placed bullets next to their bodies, found by the police on Sunday evening February 25; a warning to make it clear to those who intend to continue the work of their colleague that they had better give up.

What we are almost certain too is that Ján Kuciak died because of what he knew. Victim of what he intended to publish. The cases he investigated had both a mafia and a political background. The tracks or the possible reasons lead respectively to a local mafia organization and to another foreigner.

Both the Slovak and foreign media are ready today to publish what Ján Kuciak was working on. Light is what the devil (whoever is hiding behind him) fears the most.
The Italian mafia

Ján Kuciak, with his Czech and Italian colleagues, was preparing a series of articles on the activities of the Italian mafia in eastern Slovakia. And on the latter's connections with local politicians from Smer [the Social Democratic Party of which Prime Minister Robert Fico is the leader] or even directly with the Government Office. The progress of his investigation was such that he was about to publish his information - an always delicate moment for an investigative journalist because it is the one where he is most threatened.

Ján Kuciak had discovered that one of the most violent Italian mafia organizations - ‘Ndrangheta - had relationships with Italian businessmen who built a real regional empire in eastern Slovakia.

According to European security services, the ‘Ndrangheta is even stronger and more violent than the Sicilian mafia. It reigns over Calabria, Malta and has extended its tentacles to other regions still in Europe, where it influences local authorities, justice, politics ...

International drug trafficking (mainly cocaine) constitutes the bulk of its revenues, with online betting, arms sales, tax evasion and embezzlement of European funds.