- Zoltán Andruskó convicts Alena Zsuzsová of ordering the murder of Ján Kuciak.
- Andruskó claims that Zsuzsová ordered the murders of prosecutors from him.
- Andruskó names businessman Marian Kočner as the main orderer of the murders.
Witness Zoltán Andruskó continues to convict the defendant Alena Zsuzsová of ordering the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak. At Monday’s main hearing, he also testified that she should have ordered the murders of prosecutors from him, which ultimately did not happen. Andruskó is serving a 15-year prison sentence for mediating the journalist’s murder.
According to him, he met Alena Zsuzsová in 2010 on the Internet. She should have contacted him with a request for help, as she had financial problems. He described their relationship as friendly. According to him, it is not true that he owes money to Alena Zsuzsová, apart from 20,000 euros, which he should have received as a deposit for mediating the murder of the current Prosecutor General of the Slovak Republic, Maroš Žilinka.
According to Andruskó, the defendant should have insisted that the deed be carried out. “I told (defendant Dušan K., note TASR) that nothing should happen to anyone. I didn’t want anyone to be murdered,” he explained why, according to him, the murder of the prosecutor did not happen.
According to his opinion, the main customer should have been Marian Kočner. “Alena Zsuzsová explained to me that nothing can happen to us, because we are covered by the prosecutors and the police.” the witness added. According to Andruskó, even the then special prosecutor should have known about the murder order.
At the main hearing, he also described the circumstances under which the defendant should have ordered Kuciak’s murder from him. “I approached Szabó and Marček about it. We met, they thought for about a day whether they wanted to do it or not,” he added, adding that the pair finally decided to commit the murder. The witness clarified that according to the original intention, the journalist’s body was supposed to disappear so that the perpetrators would not be found. Andruskó also described the circumstances under which the defendant was supposed to hand over the money to him for the execution of the murder.
Andruskó stated, among other things, that he had been threatened by the police in the past to “keep his mouth shut because it will turn out badly” in economic matters and in the case of the preparation of murders of prosecutors. According to him, he also knew about the earlier murder of the former mayor of Hurbanov, László Basternák.
At the main hearing on Monday, he claimed that in the past, he received a mediated message, which was supposed to come from the police chief at the time, to keep quiet, because he would end up as an exponent of Hurbanov.
Prosecutor of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Slovak Republic Peter Kysel was the intervening prosecutor in the case of Bašternák’s murder. “I don’t remember that (Andruskó, note TASR) mentioned such a combination of words at the main hearing. I will check what is written in the judgment as such and I will have to intervene in relation to the police,” he pointed out.
The mother of the murdered woman, Zlatica Kušnírová, drew attention to the fact that Andruskó remembers a lot of it even after the time has passed since the act. “I hope there will be no contradictions,” she added.
According to Marian Kočner’s lawyer Marek Paru, the overwhelming part of the witness’s testimony so far is in favor of the defense. He declared that his client would ask Andruskó questions and he would comment on the witness statement before the court. Alena Zsuzsová’s defense attorney Ján Neszméry continues to challenge the credibility of the witness. “He comes up with something new at every hearing, from this point of view we are not surprised.” he added.
In the case of Kuciak’s murder from February 2018, in which his fiancee Martina Kušnírová also died in Veľká Mača in the Galanta district, Marian Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová are facing indictment on her order. 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, Andruskó 15 years without parole.
In addition to Marian Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová, Dušan K. and Darko D. are also facing indictment for the preparation of the murders of the prosecutors. The order for the murders of Maroš Žilinka and Daniel Lipšic was supposed to arrive in the fall of 2017, according to the indictment. In the case of Petr Šufliarske, in 2018. However, they were not carried out. Szabó has been legally convicted since 2022, who confessed to the preparation of the murders.
