Slain Slovak journalist ‘probed Italian mafia links’

Murdered Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak was probing alleged political corruption linked to the Italian mafia, the news portal he worked for revealed Wednesday, as the killing sparked calls for fresh anti-corruption protests in the small EU state.

Opposition politicians demanded the interior minister and police chief step down, accusing them of failing to protect Kuciak after he received threats. Kuciak, 27, and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova were found shot dead on Sunday at his home in Velka Maca, a town to the east of Bratislava, raising concerns at home and abroad about media freedoms and the level of corruption in Slovakia.

He reported for the aktuality.sk news portal owned by German-Swiss Axel Springer and Ringier group, focusing on businessmen with links to Prime Minister Robert Fico’s governing SMER-SD party and other politicians.

At midnight, aktuality.sk published Kuciak’s last, unfinished investigative report on possible political links to Italian businessmen with alleged ties to Calabria’s notorious ‘Ndrangheta mafia supposedly operating in eastern Slovakia.

“Two people from the circles of a man who came to Slovakia as someone accused in a mafia case in Italy have daily access to the country’s prime minister,” Kuciak wrote in the article titled “Italian mafia in Slovakia. Its goblins extend into politics.”

“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.”