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Conflict & Justice

Will the third time be a charm in the murder trial of Slovak journalist?

A high-profile retrial is underway in Bratislava after investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová were shot dead in 2018, a killing widely linked to Kuciak’s corruption reporting.

DW & The World

In this Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018 file photo, light tributes are seen during a silent protest in memory of murdered journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kusnirova, seen in photo, in Bratislava, Slovakia. The state prosecutor in Slovakia requested on Thursday, July 23, 2020, a 25-year prison term for all three defendants in the alleged contract killings of an investigative journalist and his fiancée, a case that triggered a political crisis and brought down the country’s government.

Bundas Engler/AP/File

In the Slovak capital, Bratislava, a high-profile retrial is underway. 

Ján Kuciak, a 27-year-old investigative journalist, and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová were shot dead in their home in 2018 — a killing widely believed to be connected to Kuciak’s reporting on corruption.

A group of people participating in a vigil at dusk, holding candles and signs with messages in Slovakian and "#AllForJan." A Slovak flag is partially visible in the background, and the setting has a mosaic-decorated structure.
Slovak residents hold candles and placards during a rally to demand a thorough investigation of the slayings of an investigative reporter and his fiancee, and changes in the government, in Paris, Friday, March 9, 2018. The bodies of 27-year-old Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova were found Feb. 25 in their house in the town of Velka Maca. Placard top right reads, “I don’t trust the current government. I want change. Jan Kuciak” and placard foreground center right reads “Stand for a decent Slovakia”. Thibault Camus/AP/File

The businessman suspected of ordering the killing has been acquitted on two occasions, but both times the verdicts were overturned by Slovakia’s Supreme Court, citing serious flaws in how evidence had been assessed.

A group of masked security officers escort two handcuffed men in a formal setting. The officers are wearing black tactical gear and balaclavas, while the two men are dressed in civilian clothing.
In this file picture taken on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019, Marian Kocner, right, the suspected mastermind in the slaying of an investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova and suspected shooters Miroslav Marcek, center, and Tomas Szabo, left, are escorted by armed police officers from a courtroom during a trial session in Pezinok, Slovakia. On Friday May 19, 2023, a court in Slovakia acquitted again a businessman accused of masterminding the 2018 slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancée, a crime that shocked the country and led a government to fall.Petr David Josek/AP/File

Will this trial be any different? Many believe that Slovak judicial independence depends upon it. 

From our partners at Deutsche Welle, DW, Rob Cameron reports.

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