Both Coalition and Opposition Want Remias' Murder Investigated
Bratislava, April 29 (TASR) – The brisk and efficient investigation into the murders of journalist Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova inspires hope that other cases that seemed hopelessly beyond the reach of justice, and that have fuelled public cynicism for years, might be resolved and their perpetrators punished, Parliamentary Vice-chair Gabor Grendel (OLaNO) stated in response to the 24th anniversary of the murder of Robert Remias.
Grendel added that he hopes the public will learn the whole truth about Remias’ murder one day.
Ex-policeman Robert Remias served as a contact between Oskar Fegyveres, the key witness to the 1995 kidnapping of ex-president Michal Kovac’s son, and former journalist Peter Toth. Remias was assassinated in a blast in 1996, when his car was remotely detonated.
“Until that day comes, it’s our moral imperative to commemorate the present day, so that even the perpetrators who hide today swaddled in their own comforting sense of impunity somewhere will know that we haven’t forgotten. We won’t be satisfied and won’t stay silent until this tragedy is investigated properly,” Grendel told TASR.
Parliamentary Chair Boris Kollar (We Are Family) perceives as satisfaction the annulment of Vladimir Meciar’s 1998 amnesties by Parliament back in April 2017. He harbours doubts as to whether the wrongs can be redressed after so many long years, however, and is saddened that Smer-SD in the past vehemently refused to lift the amnesty also in the case of Marian K [a controversial entrepreneur, who faces charges of ordering a hit against late journalist Jan Kuciak -ed.note].
Parliamentary Vice-chair Juraj Seliga (For the People) expressed his regret over the murder and stated that Meciar’s amnesties are one of the blackest smears in the history of modern Slovakia. “Meciar’s amnesties were a brutal and egregious abuse of power that must never ever occur again,” Seliga stated at a press briefing on Wednesday.
According to SaS caucus chair Anna Zemanova, the scrapping of Meciar’s amnesties was the first step towards solving the murder. “We believe that changing the state of affairs in the judiciary and then untying the hands of investigators might help to resolve the case,” she told TASR.
Opposition MP and former interior minister (2018-20) Denisa Sakova (Smer-SD) pointed out that Smer-SD initiated the scrapping of the amnesties in the past. “I wish every single murder, regardless of its background, to be properly investigated and the perpetrators justly punished,” she claimed.
