A 44-year-old woman has become the fourth person to be charged with the murder of Slovak investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, who investigated links between the Calabrian mafia and Slovak politicians, the prosecution said.
The assassination of the journalist and his girlfriend in February sparked major protests against the Slovak government and led to the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The woman, who has been identified in the Slovak media media, as Alena Zsuzsova reportedly “ordered” the murder of the journalist and his fiancée.
“We can confirm that the woman identified as A.Z. has been accused of the particularly serious crime of complicity in the murder,” said prosecutor spokeswoman Andrea Predajnova in a statement.
According to Reuters the hit on the journalist was ordered for 70,000 euros. Fifty-thousand of which was paid in cash while the rest was taken off a debt.
According to Kuciak’s family lawyer, former Justice and Home Affairs Minister Daniel Lipsic, the suspect has played an intermediary role, “while the killer might not at all to know who sponsored the crime”.
Zsuzsova worked as an interpreter for the controversial Slovak businessman Marian Kocner, whose activities were the subject of journalistic investigations by Jan Kuciak. According to local media reports, she is married to Marian Kocner’s son.
Three men arrested the day before in Kolarovo, a small town in the same region on the Slovenian-Hungarian border, east of Bratislava, namely a former police investigator, a former military man and a businessman have also been accused of “premeditated murder” in the Kuciak case.
On Sunday, a court in Banska Bystryca decided on the provisional arrest of the four suspects who were then charged by the police.
The last article published by Jan Kuciak on in February was about possible tax evasion linked to a luxury apartment complex in Bratislava that was at the centre of a political scandal last year. H also reported on suspicious transactions by companies related to Marian Kocner.
