Slovak court resumes Kuciak murder trial with documentary evidence

On Oct. 5, 2026, judges at Pezinok’s Specialized Criminal Court resumed the third proceeding over the killings of reporter Ján Kuciak and his partner, Martina Kušnírová, by reading documentary evidence. Marian Kočner and Dušan Kracina were present among the defendants, according to Slovak reports.¹⁴⁷

A combined proceeding

Kočner and Alena Zsuzsová are accused of ordering Kuciak’s murder. They are also defendants, alongside Kracina and Darko Dragić, in the connected case concerning alleged preparations to kill prosecutors Maroš Žilinka, Daniel Lipšic and Peter Šufliarsky. The planned killings of the prosecutors were not carried out.¹²⁴⁶

Denník N reported that the resumed hearing was being conducted by a panel presided over by Miroslav Mazúch. It said Kočner was brought to court under escort, while Zsuzsová agreed to be tried in her absence because of health problems. The court planned to consider expert assessments as well as other written evidence.³

Earlier convictions and allegations

Miroslav Marček and Tomáš Szabó have each received unconditional 25-year prison terms for their roles in the Kuciak case, while intermediary Zoltán Andruskó received a 15-year term. Szabó has also been finally convicted since 2022 in connection with preparing the prosecutors’ murders and confessed to participating in those preparations.¹⁴

The prosecution case says orders targeting Žilinka and Lipšic were made in autumn 2017, followed by an alleged order targeting Šufliarsky in 2018. SITA reported that prosecutors allege Kočner sought the killings because of the three men’s involvement in matters affecting him. Those accusations remain before the court.¹²⁴

Judgments overturned

The Supreme Court annulled the two previous judgments, according to Pravda, TA3 and SITA. SITA reported that Kočner had been acquitted in both earlier Kuciak murder trials, while Zsuzsová was acquitted in the first and convicted in the second. The Supreme Court sent the case to a different panel after identifying unclear findings, incomplete evidentiary work and a failure to address circumstances relevant to the decision.¹²⁴⁶

At the start of the third trial, the court kept encrypted Threema communications in evidence despite a challenge from Kočner’s lawyer, Marek Para. Para also disputed Andruskó’s credibility, while Roman Kvasnica argued against excluding the digital material. OCCRP and the Investigative Centre of Ján Kuciak reported that 42 hearing dates had been set through the end of 2026; SITA said the last scheduled date was Dec. 16.²⁶