Toth: Marian K. Wanted Help from Senior Officials to Free Him from Custody
Pezinok, January 15 (TASR) – Businessman Marian K., charged with ordering the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak two years ago, wanted to establish contact from custody with Special Prosecutor Dusan Kovacik and Constitutional Court judge Mojmir Mamojka in order to ask them for help, Marian K.’s former close ally Peter Toth told the Specialised Criminal Court in Pezinok (Bratislava region) on Wednesday.
Toth, an erstwhile counter-intelligence director, said that Marian K. was using him to send secret written messages from custody, in which the businessman was remanded in mid-2018 for alleged forgery of multi-million promissory notes held against TV Markiza. In one of the secret messages he complained about the failure of Mamojka and former prime minister Robert Fico – at the time only chairman of the main governing party Smer-SD – to arrange his release. Fico resigned as prime minister in response to mass protests across the country following the double murder of Jan Kuciak and his fiancée.
Marian K. also wanted Toth to inquire with the special prosecutor about prospects for his release from custody. Kovacik allegedly responded to Toth via Nitra-based businessman Norbert Bodor, claiming that this wasn’t feasible, as prosecutor Jan Santa, who was in charge of the promissory-notes case, would immediately alert the media.
Toth told the court that he has no doubts that Marian K. and his associate Alena Zs. plotted the murder of Kuciak, but he believes that Bodor wasn’t involved.
After the double murder Bodor allegedly approached Toth with a plan of trailing some politicians, including those who weren’t part of what he described as Smer’s “hard core”. Meanwhile, Marian K. wanted Toth to begin trailing Prosecutor-General Jaromir Ciznar. Toth told the court that he turned down both requests.
Former soldier Miroslav M. has already pleaded guilty before the court of gunning down both Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova. He said that his cousin Tomas Sz., a former police investigator, served as his driver for the murders. The order for killing the journalist was placed by Zoltan Andrusko, who’s already been sentenced to 15 years following a plea deal. Andrusko originally wanted the pair to kidnap Kuciak and make him disappear, but Tomas Sz. told him that such methods aren’t feasible any more, said Miroslav M.
Marian K. allegedly ordered the murder of Kuciak as an act of vengeance for the latter’s articles focusing on his shady business activities.
