It has become a familiar trope, the court case that tests a society’s integrity at the same time that it weighs the guilt of the accused.
But that is exactly what is happening in Slovakia, where the trial of those accused of the murders of a young journalist probing state corruption and his fiancée is defying courtroom clichés.
The killing last year of Ján Kuciak, 27, and Martina Kušnírová sparked the largest public demonstrations Slovakia had seen since the end of communism in 1989. Prime Minister Robert Fico was forced to quit under pressure, and electoral support for his ruling Smer party fell below 20 percent for the first time in almost two decades.
And yet the investigation into the murders has made clear that the corruption at the heart of Slovak public life has deep roots.
Evidence leaked from the police investigation has revealed an appalling amount of political corruption, shocking voters and fueling a protest movement, Za slusne Slovensko (For A Decent Slovakia).
What turned the murders into a national trauma was the contents of Kočner’s cell phone, yielding messages allegedly exchanged between Kočner and politicians, judges and state officials over whom Kočner seemed to wield influence.
But even as it has spurred citizens to action, the country’s splintered political landscape and dysfunctional institutions are dimming hope that change can be delivered through the current system and parliamentary elections in February.
“The depth of the depravity uncovered by the murder investigation has depressed and demobilized many voters,” said Miroslav Beblavý, a leading figure in the PS/Spolu opposition coalition. “The key issue now is whether all this pro-change sentiment can still be transformed into election results.”
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At the start of the trial on Thursday, four people were charged with the murders of Kuciak and Kušnírová, who were executed in their home in southern Slovakia in February 2018. A fifth man, who confessed to the crime and has been working with the prosecution, awaits sentencing.
The ringleader is alleged to be Marian Kočner, an entrepreneur with close ties to Fico’s Smer party whose name was first listed in a police organized crime database a decade ago. Kuciak had written some 25 articles on Kočner’s activities by the time he was killed. According to the indictment, Kočner first tried to find “dirt” on Kuciak to silence him, but found nothing discreditable in the journalist’s life.
Miroslav Marcek accused of the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak attends the preliminary hearing at the beginning of the trial on December 19 | Gabriel Kuchta/Getty Images
“These facts probably led Marian Kočner to decide to physically eliminate Ján Kuciak and thereby prevent the publication of further information about his activities,” prosecutor Ján Šanta wrote in his indictment.
What turned the murders into a national trauma was the contents of Kočner’s cell phone, on which encryption was broken earlier this year. The device yielded thousands of messages allegedly exchanged between Kočner and politicians, judges and state officials over whom Kočner seemed to wield broad, if informal influence. The messages were published by Slovak media this past summer.
In one message, addressed to a co-defendant in the murder case, Kočner appears to mock Kuciak as “Saint Ján Kuciak, patron of journalists” and asking “who makes a better patron than someone who has a patron in him?” (In Slovak, patron also means bullet).
The arrest of Dobroslav Trnka, who served as Slovakia’s attorney general from 2004 to 2011, earlier this week on charges of abuse of power was painted as a positive step in the direction of rooting out corruption.
In another text, sent after Kuciak’s murder, Kočner proposes to help the Fico government, “because if Smer loses power, we’re all going to jail.”
Kuciak was not the only journalist Kočner had on his radar. According to the testimony of witnesses in the case, Kočner allegedly employed former police and secret service officers to perform clandestine surveillance and gathered personal data on 28 other journalists and their spouses and children. I found out that I was on the list when police contacted my son earlier this month to give evidence as an injured party.
The leaks appalled many Slovaks, none more than Zlata Kušnírová, the mother of Kušnírová, Kuciak’s fiancée.
“There is a lot in Kočner‘s messages about corruption in politics, but unfortunately people don’t realize it’s not just about Ján and Martina, it affects everyone in this country,” she said.
“The ruling Smer party has been in power for 12 years, and we have murders, corruption, collusion with the Mafia — it’s unbearable.”
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Amid the summer’s lurid revelations, it was indeed easy to lose sight of a more insidious truth — that important institutions had for years failed to defend the country’s young democracy.
The arrest of Dobroslav Trnka, who served as Slovakia’s attorney general from 2004 to 2011, earlier this week on charges of abuse of power was painted as a positive step in the direction of rooting out corruption.
He had been exposed in a voice recording with Kočner as having allegedly attempted to extort money from a businessman from whom Kočner had already received a payment. The 70-minute conversation also made clear that Kočner had for years secretly acted as Trnka’s “bank,” collecting payments that Trnka, as the country’s most senior prosecutor, was unable to receive officially.
People attend a protest named “For a Decent Slovakia” on the first anniversary of the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova in February in Bratislava | Vladimir Simicek/AFP via Getty Images
Another video showed Kočner installing a secret video camera in Trnka’s office, in the presence of the attorney general himself, although Trnka has since denied recording anyone in his office.
As Trnka’s term in office ended, Kočner warned the attorney general that his life was in danger. “I know they’ll kill me. I’m a dead man,” Trnka responded.
Fico’s successor as prime minister, Peter Pellegrini, said he welcomed Trnka’s arrest. “With all the information and the videos that have been released, the public were expecting this step. It’s a good signal to our society that the police have a free hand and no one is above the law.”
With the Smer party still the country’s most popular political force, and the opposition implacably divided between Beblavy’s liberals and the neo-Nazi People’s Party Our Slovakia, it is not impossible that Pellegrini will get first crack at forming a government after February’s vote.
For all that, it is understood that Kočner is unlikely to have been the only operator of his kind in Slovakia, and that the institutional wreckage left by his career still requires fixing.
For Zlata Kušnírová, too, Slovakia needs more than virtue signaling.
“People need to realize what kind of country they live in, and what’s going on here. People have to fight for justice. Ján and Martina deserve it.”