Multimillionaire Charged With Slovak Journalist’s Murder Held Maltese Company
The man charged with having ordered the murder of Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak was once the director of a Malta-registered company.
Multimillionaire Marian Kocner, who was charged with the murder last Thursday, was the director of International Investment Holdings, set up in 2010 but struck off the MFSA registry in 2016.
Kuciak, who was investigating Kocner’s business activities at the time of his death in February 2018, was the second high-profile assassination of a journalist in Europe in a matter of months after the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta the previous October.
The journalist was gunned down in his home along with his fiancee. His death was followed by mass protests and the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico.
“The reason for the murder was the journalistic work of the victim” – Special Prosecutor
Kucak’s final report, which was published posthumously, detailed allegations linking Slovak politicians and the Italian mafia. Kocner was not mentioned in the article.
Kocner, who has been in Custody since last June on suspicion of fraud, is believed to have links with Fico’s Smer-SD party.