‘Scar’ Memorial To Kuciak And Kušnírová Unveiled Four Years After Their Assassination
A memorial to commemorate the assassinated investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová was unveiled in Bratislava, Slovakia yesterday on the fourth anniversary of their deaths.
Kuciak’s parents, Jana and Jozef, and Kušnírová’s mother, Zlata were in attendance, with the latter two speaking during the commemoration ceremony.
Matthew Caruana Galizia, son of assassinated Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and director of the foundation set up in her name, was also present at the ceremony and took part in a debate commemorating the anniversary of Kuciak and Kušnírová’s deaths.
Flutura Kusari, the Senior Legal Advisor at the European Centre for Press & Media Freedom (ECPMF) was also present at the unveiling ceremony.
Flutura Kusari /ECPMF
“From the beginning, we worked with the motive of [presenting] a crack or scar that remained in the society after the murder,” Marián Králik, the architect behind the sculpture said according to a tweet by the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation.
In 2020, Slovak courts ruled that Marián Kočner was not guilty of masterminding the murder of the journalist and his fiancée despite several people, including Kuciak’s editor-in-chief at Aktuality.sk, being convinced of Kočner’s involvement. It was also alleged that Alena Zsuzsová masterminded the murder in collaboration with Kočner.
As it stands, former soldier Miroslav Marček admitted to being hired as a hitman to kill Kuciak and Kušnírová, leading him to be jailed for 23 years in April 2020.
In June 2021, Slovakia’s Supreme Court overturned the acquittal of Marian Kočner, who is accused of ordering Kuciak’s murder.
Kočner’s retrial opens next Monday, 28 February, at the Specialised Criminal Court in Slovakia.
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