BRATISLAVA (Reuters) -Slovakia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday cancelled the acquittal of a businessman accused of organising the 2018 murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee and ordered a new trial, following an appeal from prosecutors.
A lower court last year acquitted Marian Kocner, in a case that shook Slovakia and led to mass protests against graft in government, citing lack of evidence.
Judge Peter Paluda told a public hearing the lower court did not consider all available evidence in a complex way.
Kuciak, 27, and his fiancee Matina Kusnirova were gunned down in their home outside Bratislava.
The murders forced long-term leader Robert Fico to step down as prime minister, sparked massive protests and ushered in a new government last year whose main election promise was to clean up corruption and sleaze.
Bringing Kuciak’s killers to justice has been a test of Slovakia’s judicial and political system, long regarded as susceptible to corruption.
Prosecutors allege that Kocner, the subject of Kuciak’s reporting on graft involving politically connected entrepreneurs, had ordered the killing. Kocner repeatedly denied the charge.
Along with Kocner, the court cancelled the acquittal of his acquaintance Alena Zsuzsova.
Two other people have been sentenced to 15 and 25 years in jail, one for helping arrange the hit and one who has admitted to the shooting.
Kocner has separately been sentenced to 19 years in an unconnected fraud case.
(Reporting by Radovan Stoklasa; Writing by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Alex Richardson, William Maclean)
