Attack on Slovak PM: Man charged with attempted murder
The arrested attacker has been charged with attempted murder with premeditation. According to current findings, the attacker acted out of revenge and targeted a politician holding a constitutional office. This may additionally affect the severity of the sentence.
Juraj C., who shot at Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Wednesday, has been formally charged with attempted murder with premeditation.
The severity of the sentence may ultimately be determined by the fact that, according to findings so far, the attacker acted out of revenge and attacked a politician holding a constitutional office.
The 71-year-old man is in the custody of the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) in Nitra.
leak of the recording
After the attack, a video recording, possibly from Juraj C.'s interrogation, leaked to the media, in which he expresses his disagreement with the government's policies. The recording was most likely made at the police station. The police have not explained how such a leak could have occurred.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and one of Fico's closest associates, Robert Kaliniak, spoke about a politically motivated assassination. "There is no doubt about it, and you know it well," he told reporters. "The inability to accept the will of part of society, which some group dislikes, is the result we have arrived at," he stated.
Attack on the Prime Minister
Interior Minister Matusz Szutaj Esztok reported that the attacker decided to carry out the attack about a month after the presidential elections.
Private television station Markiza reported that the attacker told the police he had planned the attack a few days earlier. He also stated that he wanted to harm the Prime Minister but did not intend to kill him. Juraj C.'s son told the media he had no idea what his father was planning. He denied that his father had been treated in a psychiatric hospital.
He did not answer whether his father harbored hatred for the Prime Minister. "Let me put it this way: he did not vote for him. That is all I can say on the matter," he said.
