The unnamed suspects were among eight people arrested in a police raid on 27 September. This is the first significant development in the investigation since the murder of Kuciak and his fiancee in February.
This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 28 September 2018.
Slovak police today charged three people with the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak, and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová, according to reports. The unnamed suspects were among eight people arrested in a raid yesterday, according to reports. The other five were released today, according to a prosecutor cited in news reports.
“The murder charges brought today in the case of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová are a welcome step, but Slovak authorities must leave no stone unturned. This means finding the people who ordered the killing of a courageous reporter in order to censor the truth,” said CPJ European Union Representative Tom Gibson. “The families of the victims, their friends and colleagues deserve full justice.”
Kuciak and Kušnírová were found murdered on February 25, 2018, in Veľká Mača, some 50 kilometers from the capital Bratislava. Kuciak had reported on fraud cases involving Slovak businessmen and the Italian mafia ‘Ndrangheta’s incursions into Slovakia, according to reports.
