A reporter for Aktuality.sk, Jan Kuciak had published investigative articles on the criminal activities of Marian Kocner, who is charged as the mastermind behind the murder. According to the prosecution, Alena Zsuzsova passed his order through an intermediary to a killing squad, who assassinated the journalist and his fiancée on 21 February 2018 in their home in Velka Maca, a village near the capital, Bratislava.
This will be the third time Marian Kocner will be tried in this case. The businessman — who was sentenced to 19 years in prison for a different crime in 2021 — was acquitted by the Special Criminal Court, the first instance court in the Kuciak case, in 2020 and then again in 2023; the Supreme Court overturned both acquittals on appeal. In the 2023 verdict, the Special Criminal Court convicted Alena Zsuzsova of commissioning the journalist’s murder, maintaining that she sought to please Marian Kocner, her long-time associate.
However, in the appeal ruling issued two years later, the Supreme Court faulted the trial’s judges for errors in their assessment of the evidence and for failing to comply with the first appeal decision made in 2021. As a result, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict and reassigned the case to a different panel of judges at the Special Criminal Court.