"I condemn this cowardly act. The killing or intimidation of journalists have no place in Europe, have no place in any democracy," said President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker in his reaction to the assassination of a Slovak investigative journalist.
Slovak police started investigating the murder of Ján Kuciak and his fianceé with one of the probable reasons for their death being an article on which he was working. The text was published on February 28 at 12 am. In the morning news, public broadcaster RTVS newscast quoted:
According to Italian investigators it was exactly Vadala who, on the request of the clan, helped to hide mafia member Domenico Venturo, who was sentenced due to the brutal murder of a member of a competing gang, and helped him to flee authorities.
Due to the lack of evidence, Antonino Vadala was freed. Meanwhile, he opened several businesses in Slovakia dealing with agriculture, housing estates and energy systems. Here he made contacts with Slovak politicians. In 2011, he set up the GIA management company together with Mária Trošková. She is currently the senior advisor to Prime Minister Robert Fico. Antonino Vadala has also close connections with ex-MP for the party SMER-SD Viliam Jasaň and his son who sold his company PRODEST to the Italian. Today, Viliam Jasaň is the Secretary of the Security Council of the Slovak Republic. Again a quote from the article by Ján Kuciak:
It means that two people close to the person, who came to Slovakia as people accused in a mafia case in Italy, have access to the prime minister of this country on a daily basis. They were chosen by Robert Fico himself.
At the press conference held on Tuesday, Prime Minister Robert Fico told journalists: "You cannot link people with assassinations while not providing a single piece of relevant evidence." In reaction to the assassination of the journalist, the opposition MP Ľubomír Galko said: "As the head of the special parliamentary committee for controlling the National Security Service, I will ask its director, Mr Magala to open the security clearance documents of these two people." Later on, Viliam Jasaň denied having any connections to the Italian mafia. As he said for the tabloid daily Plus 1 deň: "I have even not suspected there is any here. I will react through lawyers to all the baseless slander and insults."
The Slovak reporter was co-operating on his article with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, with the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism and the Investigative Reporting Project Italy. The article was never finished due to the tragedy.
On Tuesday, Robert Fico met editors in chief of the main Slovak media. They were discussing some of the details regarding the killing of the journalist. The prime minister called for joint steps leading to completing the investigation. The editors in chief asked Robert Fico about the alleged links of Mária Trošková and Viliam Jasaň with people close to the Italian mafia. They asked him to respond to questions from journalists.
Later on, Marek Vagovič, the chief of investigative department of the aktuality.sk web (for which the assassined Ján Kuciak was writing his article, ed. note) said for RTVS: "Joint pressure and joint work is for the protection of all of us. It's not only publishing the text but further working on the topic."
