The Supreme Court on Tuesday annulled the 2020 verdict of the Specialised Criminal Court in the case of the murders of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova.
The case of controversial businessman Marián Kočner - who allegedly ordered the hit on Kuciak - and Alena Zsuzsová - allegedly the first intermediary for Kuciak's murder - will be returned to the Specialised Criminal Court.
In September 2020, the Specialised Criminal Court acquitted Marián Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová of charges in the Kuciak murder case, since neither of them had been proven to commit the crimes they had been charged with. On Tuesday, 15 June, the Supreme Court decided to annul the 2020 verdict and return the case to the Specialised Criminal Court.
Supreme Court senate chair Peter Paluda commented on the decision as follows: "The Specialised Criminal Court didn't deal with all the circumstances, hasn't justified a comprehensible verdict and failed to take all evidence into consideration. The evidence it admitted was often evaluated on a separate basis leading to an incorrect legal conclusion, which in the end resulted in acquittal."
Among such evidence not taken into consideration were intimidating messages sent by Kočner to the murder victim, Kuciak.
The bereaved families of Kuciak and Kušnírová perceive Tuesday's Supreme Court verdict as a victory for justice in Slovakia and are happy with the decision.
President Zuzana Čaputová, too, welcomes the verdict and thinks the Supreme Court took an extremely important step to restore public trust in the judiciary.
The OLaNO party believes that the new verdict will comprise a fundamental step towards a just resolution of the case, while Justice Minister Maria Kolíková underlined that the final verdict will need to be explained and justified in such a way that it is comprehensible and believable to the public.
