Italian suspects named by killed Slovak journo arrested
SLOVAK police said they detained yesterday several Italian businessmen named by murdered journalist Jan Kuciak as having mafia connections in an explosive investigative report on alleged high-level corruption.
“I can confirm that these raids and detentions are being carried out in several places,” police commander Tibor Gaspar told reporters. He said those taken into custody in the eastern town of Michalovice were “persons mentioned” by Kuciak in connection with the “Italian track”.
Slovak media reported that among those held was businessman Antonino Vadala, the owner of several firms, and relatives, alleged by Kuciak to have links to Italy’s notorious ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate and contacts in the Slovak government.
“Evidence and individuals are being detained, they will be interrogated,” Gaspar said.
An article by Kuciak, which was posthumously published Wednesday by aktuality.sk, focused on fraud cases allegedly involving Vadala, and said he was linked to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s entourage.
Maria Troskova, a close Fico aide, was forced out after Kuciak alleged she had ties to Vadala, purportedly involved with the ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate.
Kuciak, 27, and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova were found shot dead at his home on Sunday, raising concerns about media freedoms and graft in Slovakia and sparking a wave of international condemnation.
A protest in the capital Bratislava called by a conservative opposition party drew around 1,000 people on Wednesday.
Aktuality.sk and other Slovak media published Kuciak’s last, unfinished investigative report on possible political links to Italian businessmen with alleged ties to Calabria’s notorious mafia supposedly operating in eastern Slovakia.
“Italians with ties to the mafia have found a second home in Slovakia. They started doing business, receiving subsidies, drawing EU funds, but especially building relationships with influential people in politics – even in the government office of the Slovak Republic,” Kuciak wrote.
Troskova, 30, and Fico’s crisis management officer Viliam Jasan said on Wednesday they had given up their posts for the duration of the murder investigation, but denied links to the crime.
Culture Minister Marek Madaric, a member of Fico’s SMER-SD social democratic party, quit in protest calling the murder “terrifying” and telling reporters “after what has happened, I cannot imagine just calmly sitting in my minister’s chair.”
The report triggered an angry rebuke from Fico, who showed reporters stacks of euro bills totalling the € 1 million ($1.2 million) reward he has offered for information that could lead to the killers.