Custody of culprits behind journalist murder might be extended

A prosecutor from the Special Prosecutor's Office (USP) has filed a proposal to extend the custody of Alena Zs. and three other people accused in the case of the murders of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova. A USP prosecutor submitted a proposal to extend the custody by the maximum permitted period, i.e. by seven months. Jan Kuciak worked as an investigative journalist for the aktuality.sk news portal. He and his girlfriend were murdered in Kuciak's house on February 21, 2018. The person who ordered the murder paid at least €70,000 for it. Four individuals were first charged with the murders: the aforementioned Alena Zs., who allegedly paid for the murder; Tomas Sz., the gunman; Miroslav M., the driver; and Zoltan A., a go-between. All four have been held in custody since last autumn. They were recently joined by an entrepreneur, for legal reasons identified only as Marian K., who was charged on March 8. The investigation into the Kuciak case will be prolonged, as testimonies will have to be repeated after Marian K. was charged, hence the custody extension proposal. The suspicion that a person from Italy might have participated in the murders has not yet been confirmed. The investigators have still not been able to locate the firearm that was used in the murders, but the prosecutor's office knows how it was provided and by whom. They have evidence that indicates what sort of weapon it was and who adjusted it. According to the prosecutors, enormous efforts have been made to investigate this murder. The file is in 38 volumes and has more than 15,000 pages.