Slovaks Living in Belgium Ask EP for Help in Probing Kuciak's Murder
Brussels, March 5 (TASR correspondent) – A group of Slovaks living in Belgium sent an open letter to Slovak MEPs on Monday, calling on them to put pressure on the Slovak authorities and to help to ensure a transparent investigation into the murders of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova with the participation of an international investigating team, TASR learnt on the same day.
“We’re turning to you on behalf of a citizens’ initiative of Slovaks living abroad who are seriously concerned about events in Slovakia last week related to the abominable murders of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova,” reads the letter addressed to 13 Slovak representatives in the European Parliament.
The authors of the letter said that they organised a commemorative rally in front of the Slovak Embassy in Belgium on Thursday (March 1) and subsequently handed over their call to the Slovak Government and law-enforcement authorities to embassy representatives. The call contained some 110 signatures of Slovaks living or working in Belgium.
The call to the European Parliament to send an independent criminal team to investigate the murders of Jan Kuciak and his fiancée is also available on the internet on website www.change.org. Over 51,000 signatures had been added to the internet petition by Monday morning.
The Slovaks behind the petition want to thank MEPs for the efforts that they’ve made so far to see that the case is cleared up. However, they also pointed to worries about the way in which the case involving the double murder is being investigated.
“On behalf of Slovaks living abroad who signed this petition, we ask you to urge Slovak MPs to adopt legislation that would enable the formation of an international investigating team that would be a full-fledged part of the investigation procedure,” reads the letter.
The authors of the letter stressed that just because Europol employees are in Slovakia doesn’t mean that they will form part of the investigating team or that they will have direct access to the investigation file. “The Europol, Scotland Yard and FBI experts who have come to Slovakia can only participate in partial activities if Slovak investigators ask them to do so. They aren’t a full part of the investigation procedure and can’t join it independently,” reads the open letter.
The call’s authors are also concerned about the fact that it still isn’t clear on what day and at what hour the couple were murdered, and why the results of the autopsies haven’t been revealed yet.
The authors of the call stressed that they represent a group of people that has no ties to any political party and are only united by a common wish to see Kuciak’s and Kusnirova’s murders investigated in a transparent and just matter and in cooperation with foreign experts.
