Eight years after the assassination of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, the case remains emblematic of rule-of-law concerns within the European Union. Slovakia continues to grapple with a prosecution that reshaped its politics, toppled a government and exposed entrenched networks of corruption.
The central question endures: can Slovakia bring one of its most consequential criminal cases to a definitive close, or do political crosscurrents still shape the outcome? The answer is likely to echo well beyond the country’s borders to Brussels, grappling with a growing list of rule of law infringements.
“The parents of Ján and Martina are left waiting for justice. I have met them. It is heartbreaking,” said former Renew MEP Sophie in ’t Veld, drawing parallels with the 2017 assassination of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. “This was not a one-off,” she added, recalling the European Parliament fact-finding mission to Slovakia that she led in 2018.
Media Freedom Under Pressure
The retrial unfolds amid renewed scrutiny of Slovakia’s press freedom record, with media freedom groups citing legal harassment, intimidation and coordinated smear campaigns against journalists.
The public broadcaster has undergone structural overhaul. The editor of Aktuality has faced legal action from the prime minister. At commercial broadcaster TV Markíza, newsroom unrest has led to high-profile departures, with journalists accusing management of stifling editorial independence.
Concerns about media capture — documented by the International Press Institute and the Media and Journalism Research Center — have further sharpened attention on whether the European Media Freedom Act can meaningfully safeguard pluralism.
The tenor has even reached Brussels correspondents. Politico’s Nicholas Vinocur and Zoya Sheftalovich, reporting on Prime Minister Robert Fico questioning the mental fitness of U.S. President Donald Trump, were denounced by the PM for spreading “anti-Slovak, pro-Brussels liberal lies”.
The Third Trial
Against this backdrop, businessman Marian Kočner, already serving a 19-year sentence for unrelated financial crimes, stands trial alongside Alena Zsuzsová, accused of acting as an intermediary between Kočner and the hired gunmen. In a separate unrelated case, Zsuzsová was sentenced to 21 years for the unrelated murder of László Basternák, a former mayor of Hurbanovo in 2021.
After two acquittals for Kočner and a conviction for Zsuzsová, Slovakia’s Supreme Court twice overturned lower court rulings, instructing the Special Criminal Court to reassess the evidence before a new judicial panel. The retrial began on January 26.
The proceedings are widely viewed as a test of judicial independence in a politically charged climate.
The 2018 Murders
On February 21, 2018, Kuciak and Kušnírová were shot in their home. Investigators said the killings followed a period of surveillance allegedly linked to Kočner.
Miroslav Marček, who confessed to the shootings, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. His cousin Tomáš Szabó, who drove the getaway vehicle, also received 25 years. Another intermediary, Zoltán Andruskó, admitted hiring the gunmen and was given a reduced 15-year sentence.
Zsuzsová, initially acquitted, was sentenced to 25 years after a 2023 retrial. Kočner has twice been cleared, with courts ruling that the evidence did not conclusively establish his direct role in ordering the killings.
The Investigation That Triggered the Killing
Kuciak, reporting for Aktuality.sk, had investigated alleged tax fraud and financial irregularities tied to Kočner’s business interests.
Before the first trial, roughly 70 terabytes of prosecutorial material were leaked to Czech investigative journalist Pavla Holcová, a collaborator of Kuciak’s, amid fears that key evidence might disappear. The archive — later known as “Kočner’s Library” — revealed an extensive web of influence spanning police, judicial and intelligence circles.
The findings were later chronicled by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in the documentary The Killing of a Journalist.
Political Fallout — and Returning
The murders prompted Slovakia’s largest protests since the fall of communism in 1989, culminating in the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico. Reformist parties later formed a government, pledging to confront systemic corruption.
In 2023, Mr. Fico returned to office. His government introduced reforms affecting penalties for corruption, the National Crime Agency and the Office of the Special Prosecutor — bodies central to pursuing high-level graft, including cases linked to the Kuciak investigation.
Critics say the changes risk weakening safeguards put in place after 2018 to insulate criminal investigations from political interference. Whether the judiciary can withstand those pressures may determine how the Kuciak case — and Slovakia’s democratic trajectory — is ultimately judged.
