- The interrogation of Marian Kočner in the case of the murder of Kuciak was moved to March.
- Kočner asked the court to move the hearing due to technical requirements.
- Dušan K. refused to testify in this part of the proceedings, he plans to testify later.
The planned interrogation of the defendant Marian Kočner in the case of ordering the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and in the case of the preparation of the murders of the prosecutors will finally not take place at the Friday main hearing of the Specialized Criminal Court (ŠTS) in Pezinok. The president of the senate, Miroslav Mazúch, granted the defendant’s proposal to move his questioning to the next main hearing in March.
Marian Kočner assumes that his monologue part of the statement will last approximately 35 minutes. However, he pointed out that the second part of the deposition will also require a technician, a screen and a computer, as he wants to deal with communication from the Threema application. It is also planned to comment on the decision of the Supreme Court (NS) of the Slovak Republic.
His legal representative Marek Para said that only parts of the encrypted communication will be read as part of his client’s statement. “The team will react to the latest decision of the National Council of the Slovak Republic. We agree with the procedure of the prosecutor’s office, that they will then use Threema as physical evidence from A to Z“, he noted.
Marian Kočner proposed to the court to postpone his planned interrogation to the next hearing day, as he wants to testify continuously. The court granted his request and at the same time allowed him to leave the courtroom on Friday.
At Friday’s main hearing, the defendant Alena Zsuzsová’s statement from the previous proceedings will be announced. At the same time, the interrogation of the defendant Dušan K. He announced on Friday that he will refuse to testify in this part of the proceedings. He plans to be interviewed later.
In the case of the murder of Kuciak from February 2018, in which his fiancee Martina Kušnírová also died, the couple is facing indictment on her order Marian Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová. The Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic annulled the previous two judgments. The case was brought to the ŠTS for the third time. The perpetrators of the murder, Miroslav Marček and Tomáš Szabó, were previously given 25-year non-parole sentences, Zoltán Andruskó 15 years without parole.
In addition to Marian Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová, Dušan K. and Darko D. are facing indictment for preparing the murders of the prosecutors. According to the indictment, the order for the murders of Maroš Žilinka and Daniel Lipšic should have come in the fall of 2017. In the case of Petr Šufliarske in 2018. However, they were not implemented.
