Verdicts expected in murder trial of Slovak journalist

Описание: (2 Sep 2020) A court in Slovakia is expected to issue verdicts on Thursday over the murders of an investigative journalist and his fiancée.
Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, both aged 27, were shot dead in 2018, in a crime that shocked the country and led to the fall of the government.
Businessman Marian Kocner is accused of masterminding the killings. He's on trial alongside two alleged accomplices. They could face 25 years in jail if convicted.
Two other people have already been tried and sentenced for their part in the murders.
Prosecutors say Kocner threatened the journalist for writing a series of reports about his business dealings.
Kocner is already serving a 19-year sentence after a separate case involving forgery and financial crimes.
The murder trial at the Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok, north of the capital of Bratislava, opened in December.
The three-judge tribunal was originally set to deliver a verdict on 5 July but postponed its decision, saying it needed more time to decide.
"The verdict has to come when it is ready because we already know that the convicted will appeal and most likely will appeal all the way to the European Court of Justice," said Samuel Abraham, the rector at Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts and an expert in the case.
Judges could still decide Thursday that more time is needed.
Another delay would be contentious but perhaps necessary, Abraham said.  
"The pressure on the judicial power is huge, society is impatient but the judicial power... can explain that there is a need for more investigation so the case is bulletproof when it moves to higher courts in case of appeals," he commented.
The two victims were gunned down at their home in the town of Velka Maca, east of Bratislava, on 21 February 2018.
The killings prompted major street protests on a scale unseen since the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia.
The ensuing political crisis led to the collapse of the coalition government headed by populist prime minister Robert Fico, and the dismissal of the national police chief.
Kuciak had been writing about alleged ties between the Italian mafia and people close to Fico when he was killed, and also wrote about corruption scandals linked to Fico's leftist Smer party.
The investigation revealed Kocner had created a wide network of contacts with politicians, judges and prosecutors, including the prosecutor general who allegedly helped him with his business dealings.
That resulted in a number of resignations, including judges, the deputy parliamentary speaker and a senior justice ministry official.
The long-dominant but scandal-tainted Smer party was punished in parliamentary elections, losing out to a center-right coalition.

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