The World Briefly

May 23, 2023

The Teflon Man

Slovakia

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A Slovak court acquitted a businessman accused of orchestrating the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova in 2018, his second acquittal in the case and one that the victims’ families and press groups described as “shocking,” the Associated Press reported.

The Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok ruled Marian Kocner not guilty of the murders, noting that “it was not proven” that the businessman was the mastermind behind them.

However, the court convicted Kocner’s associate Alena Zsuzsova, who acted as an intermediary, for her role in the killings and sentenced her to 25 years in prison.

This is the second time the same court acquitted Kocner due to a lack of evidence. Prosecutors appealed the first verdict and Slovakia’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial, saying the lower court did not properly assess available evidence. The prosecution can still appeal.

Prosecutors alleged that Kocner had threatened Kuciak after the latter published a story about the businessman’s dealings, one of nine he had written on the businessman. Before his murder, the journalist was investigating possible government corruption.

The deaths of Kuciak and Kusnirova sparked large protests and brought down the government of then-Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Three other defendants have been convicted in the killings.

But in a separate forgery case, Kocner was sentenced to 19 years in prison, while Zsuzsova received 21 years for her role in the killing of a mayor.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, authorities indicted former and current officials of the country’s indigenous affairs agency for the 2022 murders of a British journalist and a Brazilian Indigenous specialist in the Javari Valley of the Amazon rainforest, the Washington Post noted.

The disappearance of Bruno Pereira, a former official of Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, and journalist Dom Phillips caused outrage in Brazil and internationally.

Police said that the former president and vice president of Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency were suspected of negligence for failing to take action to protect agency employees – despite being aware of the risk to their lives.

Pereira had received threats for his work mapping criminal activity in the valley, while Phillips was a Brazil-based correspondent who wrote for the Guardian and the Washington Post.

This story originally appeared in the May 23, 2023 newsletter, Full Court Press.