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The Supreme Court of Slovakia on Wednesday sentenced the murderer of the Slovakian investigative journalist Jan Kuciak to 25 years in prison.
This judgement of the appellate court against former soldier Miroslav Marcek is final and can no longer be appealed, the court spokeswoman Alexandra Vazanova confirmed to dpa.
In January 2020, he confessed to having killed Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova in February 2018 with gunshots at the head and chest.
With the ruling, the Supreme Court corrected a milder sentence by the special court responsible for organised crime in Pezinok near Bratislava.
The judges there had sentenced Marcek to 23 years in April because they credited him with the fact that he confessed and provided the investigators with valuable information on those presumed to have contracted the murder as mitigating factors.
The public prosecutor, however, insisted on the maximum penalty because of the seriousness of the crime and enforced it in the appeal proceedings.
The investigative journalist Kuciak had reported on the dodgy business dealings of the entrepreneur Marian Kocner, but also on other entanglements between politics and business.
A report published after his death about possible connections between Italian mafia clans and Slovakian government employees triggered mass demonstrations against corruption and led to the resignation of the then government.
The millionaire Kocner had repeatedly denied having ordered and paid for the killing of the journalist.(dpa/NAN)
– Dec. 2, 2020 @ 17:25 GMT |
Tags: Killer of Slovakian investigative journalist imprisoned for 25 years
