On Wednesday, after a short break, the Supreme Court (NS) of the Slovak Republic should decide on the dismissal of the defendant Juraj Cintula in the case of the assassination of Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD). Juraj Cintula faces an indictment for committing a particularly serious crime of terrorist attack. The Specialized Criminal Court (ŠTS) sentenced him to 21 years in prison last year. He appealed against the verdict.
- The Supreme Court is to decide on the dismissal of Juraj Cintula on Wednesday.
- Juraj Cintula refuses to label the act as a terrorist attack and punishment.
- The court rejected the proposal to supplement the evidence with additional medical reports of the victim.
- The Prosecutor’s Office requests to confirm the original judgment of the Specialized Criminal Court without changes.
- Juraj Cintula shot Prime Minister Fico with a legally held weapon during the exit meeting.
The defense rejects the legal qualification of the act as a terrorist act. “The defendant did not intend to destabilize the constitutional establishment of the Slovak Republic or the executive branch,” said attorney Namir Alyasry. The defendant suggests returning the case back to ŠTS, or changing the legal qualification to the crime of assault on a public official. “I’m not a terrorist. I consider twenty-one years in prison madness,” emphasized Juraj Cintula.
The defendant proposed supplementing the evidence in the form of medical reports on the state of health of the victim. The court rejected the proposal. “We consider this to be a duplicative motion for the taking of evidence that was made as part of expert evidence,” argued the chairman of the Senate of the National Assembly of the Slovak Republic.
The prosecutor of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Slovak Republic considers the decision of the first-instance court to be correct and fair. Therefore, she proposed to the Supreme Court to reject the defendant’s appeal as unfounded. She characterized the defense argumentation of the defendant as purposeful. The injured party’s representative, David Lindtner, considers the first-instance decision to be materially correct.
According to last year’s ŠTS ruling, there was no doubt that Juraj Cintula committed the act, the issue of his legal qualifications was disputed. ŠTS has so far wrongfully convicted the shooter for a terrorist attack. He faced life imprisonment. The Senate emphasized last year that the defendant did not attack the prime minister as a citizen of the Slovak Republic, but explicitly as the prime minister, whose politics he does not agree with.
Juraj Cintula claimed during the trial at ŠTS that he decided to damage Fico’s health so that he would no longer be able to perform the function of prime minister. He said he didn’t want to kill him. He chose for it the exit meeting of the government in Handlova in May 2024. At the moment when Fico headed among the sympathizers, the defendant pulled out a gun that he had in his legal possession and fired several times. The prime minister suffered several injuries.
