He had close personal contacts with government politicians, with some he planned intrigues. A state secretary in the Ministry of Justice, he called "my monkey". He was kept informed of police investigations into him, asked for biographical information about prosecutors who became dangerous to him, and urged judges to decide in his favor.
He knew in advance when the police would search his corporate office. "They'll find a shit, drink coffee and fuck off," he wrote to an accomplice. Often he garnished his messages with the most vulgar swear words.
What the independent Slovak daily "Denník N" has been publishing for a few weeks now is serious: it is a record of chats made by the Slovak businessman Marian Kocner, which he had managed through the Threema app. Kocner, who has been in custody since June last year for tax fraud and forgery, is the symbolic figure for combining organized crime and politics, and is alleged to have ordered the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak in February last year. The chat records show that he was able to operate his criminal business for years with the toleration or even active assistance of the Slovak policy.
There had been circumstantial evidence for years. So far, it has been unknown how far Kocner's connections in politics and government reached and with what cold-blooded cynicism he proceeded. The Slovak public responded with shock. "Slovakia was a mafia state where people like Kocner dictated the most important decisions in the country," wrote the organizers of the civic movement "For a Decent Slovakia," which mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to protest after the Kuciak murder. And Kocner even made fun of the dead, even ordered more murders.
VLADIMIR SIMICEK / AFP
Caputová was elected president after the murder of journalist Kuziak
At the beginning of last week, the new Slovakian President Zuzana Caputová spoke in an urgent address to the country about the chat protocols. The judiciary in Slovakia was a commodity that some people could have bought, according to Caputová. "Somebody has cynically tried to create a state in the state, it has to end and it can never be repeated, and today Slovakia is at a crossroads where it is decided what kind of country our children will live on."
There is virtually no doubt about the authenticity of the chat logs. Although Threema is considered an encryption-proof messenger service, police investigators were able to decode the chats of Kocner's smartphone. They are part of the investigation files against Marian Kocner, who has been formally charged since March this year with ordering the murder of Ján Kuciak. "These are hundreds of pages that we are still sifting through and of which we have just published a small part," says Matús Kostolný, the editor-in-chief of "Denník N", SPIEGEL.
Many of the chats Kocner has led with his accomplice Alena Zsuzsová, who is also in custody. She is said to have recruited Kuciak's killers and coordinated the murder action. In other chats Kocner repeatedly asked a friendly businessman to send him information about police investigations or about persons from the judiciary and security authorities.
The most explosive content:
- Kocner reported on talks with former Prime Minister Robert Fico and meetings with Béla Bugár, head of a coalition party in the Maldives;
- he claimed that he enjoyed the protection of former Interior Minister Robert Kalinák;
- he planned with his accomplice Alena Zsuzsová the assassination of the former Deputy Prosecutor General, a special prosecutor and a lawyer; Recently, the police investigated in this case.
Most people deny that they communicated with Kocner, met him or knew him personally, including ex-Prime Minister Robert Fico. He accused the media and his political opponents of conducting a "jihad" against him and his ruling party Smer. A state secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Monika Jankovská, who is said to have corresponded extensively with Kocner, denies the authenticity of the chats. However, her phone and the phones of several prosecutors and judges associated with Kocner have now been confiscated by the police.
Although the chats do not prove that Kocner really had such good connections, such as Fico and Kalinák. He could have compared to his chat partners so synonymous only indicated. However, "Denník N" editor-in-chief still considers the publication justified. "It's also a measure to keep investigative files from getting roped off or disappearing, as often happened in Kocner's case or other cases," Kostolný says.
The Slovak political scientist Grigory Meseznikov considers the chat minutes to be one of the most explosive releases of recent years. "The chats show that Kocner and others wanted to influence not just the judiciary, but the entire political alignment in Slovakia," Meseznikov says. "We should not be naive and think that these structures no longer exist still there, even if they're dipping right now. "
