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Ex-soldier Miroslav Marcek
Photo:
JAKUB GAVLAK / EPA-EFE / REX
In January 2020, ex-soldier Miroslav Marcek confessed to having killed investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova in February 2018 with gunshots in the head and chest.
The Supreme Court of Slovakia has now sentenced Marcek to 25 years in prison.
As court spokeswoman Alexandra Vazanova confirmed, this judgment of the appellate court against Marcek is final and can no longer be appealed.
Court corrects milder judgment
With its decision, the court corrected a milder judgment of the special court responsible for organized crime in Pezinok near Bratislava.
The judges there sentenced Marcek to 23 years in April.
They had counted him as mitigating the fact that he confessed and had provided the investigators with valuable information on suspected clients.
The public prosecutor's office, however, insisted on the maximum penalty because of the seriousness of the crime and now enforced it on appeal.
The investigative journalist Kuciak had reported on the shady business of the entrepreneur Marián Kočner, but also on other entanglements in politics and business.
People are still being arrested for Kuciak's work - most recently one of the most powerful oligarchs in Slovakia.
A report published after his death about possible connections between Italian mafia clans and Slovak government employees triggered mass demonstrations against corruption and led to the resignation of the then government.
Kočner, who was accused of ordering the murder, had repeatedly denied having commissioned and paid for the crime.
He and alleged accomplices were acquitted in the main trial in early September for lack of evidence.
Against this, the prosecution appealed.
The Supreme Court will hear it on December 15th and 16th.
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mfh / dpa