Incident

Police suspect Slovak investigative journalist murdered for his work

Cause of death

Shooting

Details

Jan Kuciak, 27, had reported for news server Aktuality.sk on fraud cases, often involving businessmen with connections to Slovakia’s ruling party and other politicians. He and his girlfriend were found dead on Sunday at his home in Velka Maca, 65 km (40 miles) east of the capital Bratislava. Aktuality’s publisher Axel Springer condemned what it called the “cruel assassination” of its journalist while the international group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was “appalled” at the murder. Slovakia’s leaders promised to bring those responsible for the killings to justice, with the government offering a 1 million euro reward for information leading to an arrest. “From the information available it seems that the most likely version is a motive connected to the investigative work of the journalist,” Slovak police chief Tibor Gaspar told a televised news conference. Kuciak’s last story for Aktuality, on Feb. 9, looked at new, allegedly suspect transactions by firms linked to businessman Marian Kocner and connected to a Bratislava luxury apartment complex that became the center of a political scandal last year. Kocner could not be reached for comment on Monday. “If it is proven that the death of the investigative reporter was connected with his journalistic work it would be an unprecedented attack on freedom of speech and democracy in Slovakia,” Prime Minister Robert Fico said. Slovakia’s economy has boomed and living standards have risen sharply since it joined the European Union in 2004, but many Slovaks say their country still fails to defend the rule of law, especially in punishing corruption and cronyism. PROTESTS OVER ALLEGED CRONYISM The case connected to the apartment complex helped touch off protests in 2017 seeking the resignation of Interior Minister Robert Kalinak over business dealings with property developer Ladislav Basternak, who has been investigated over possible tax fraud. Both have denied wrongdoing in their dealings. “We are shocked and stunned about the news that Jan Kuciak and his companion obviously have been the victims of a cruel assassination,” publisher Ringier Axel Springer Slovakia said in a statement. It said there were “justified suspicions” that the murder was connected to Kuciak’s “current research”. It declined to say what that research involved due to the pending criminal investigation. A group of 14 editors-in-chief of Slovak publications released a statement calling on the state to take all necessary steps to resolve the case and create conditions to safeguard journalists’ work. Slovak political leaders condemned the killings. President Andrej Kiska said the perpetrators should be found as soon as possible. Fico convened an emergency meeting with Kalinak, the attorney general, the national chief of police and the head of the state intelligence service. Kuciak’s killing dismayed EU officials, coming a few months after Malta’s best-known investigative journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was killed when a bomb blew up her car. “Shocked by the murder of a journalist in the EU. No democracy can survive without the free press, which is why journalists deserve respect and protection,” deputy European Commission chief Frans Timmermans said on Twitter. “Justice must be served.”