Gov't Announces Million Reward for Identifying Kuciak's Murderer

Bratislava, February 26 (TASR) – The Slovak Government on Monday announced a reward of €1 million to be paid for information leading to the identification of the person(s) who murdered investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, 27, and his fiancée in Velka Maca (Trnava region).

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry will publish a telephone number for people to report any information on the case, and anonymous calls will also be considered, said Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD).

“Our principal task is to capture the murderers. Then it will be possible to discuss the motives and what actually happened,” said Fico, reiterating that if the double murder was motivated by Kuciak’s work as a journalist, it must be viewed as an attack against democracy and the freedom of speech.

At the same time Fico announced that the Prosecutor-General’s Office will pay special attention to the case. “As this obviously concerns a premeditated murder, this case will be supervised by the Special Prosecutor’s Office and its most experienced prosecutors. We’ve also agreed to set up a special team featuring figures from the Prosecutor-General’s Office and Special Prosecutor’s Office, Interior Ministry, the Police Corps and the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS),” said Fico, calling on the Opposition to refrain from misusing the case for political purposes.

Interior Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) said that all available resources at the regional and national levels will be employed to investigate “this brutal crime”.

“The murder most probably didn’t take place yesterday [Sunday], but somewhat earlier, and that doesn’t make the situation any easier. Nonetheless, all our teams have been put into action to secure as much evidence as possible,” said Kalinak.

Kuciak wrote for news website Aktuality.sk; among other issues focusing extensively on various suspicions involving businessman Marian Kocner. Last year, he filed a criminal complaint against Kocner over alleged threats. However, the police, which also had an audio recording from Kuciak at their disposal, dropped the case. The police’s course of action will now be examined by a prosecutor.

Kuciak and his fiancée were found killed by a single gunshot each in their house in Velka Maca. Police Corps president Tibor Gaspar stated that the double murder, which seemed to have been planned, could have been related to Kuciak’s work as a journalist.