Slovak police have accused the 71-year-old man who shot Slovak Prime Minister Fico the day before of attempted revenge murder.
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This was reported by The Slovak Spectator. He faces life imprisonment.
We are talking about charges of attempted murder against former security guard Juraj Cintula during the shooting of Prime Minister Robert Fico, writes Politico.
The suspect is accused of attacking Fico in Handlov, a town in central Slovakia where the Slovak government held a meeting on Wednesday. Fico’s condition is “stable but very serious” after the assassination attempt, according to the director of the Banska Bystrica hospital, where the prime minister is being treated.
If convicted, Tsintul could face up to 25 years in prison or life imprisonment, local media reported.
According to Slovak television, Tsintula told police that he had planned the attack several days earlier, but did not intend to kill Fico.
Although the motive for the assassination attempt is unclear, Slovakia’s Interior Minister Matus Szutaj Eštok said the attack was “politically motivated” and that “the perpetrator’s decision was made immediately after the presidential elections.”
Tsintula is a former security guard, poet and member of the Slovak Writers’ Society.
Divided Slovakia
Slovakia broke a taboo that the country’s citizens never believed in breaking.
Firstly, it was the murder in 2018 of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, who was engaged in his profession, but who paid for it with his own life, as well as the life of his fiancee Martina Kushnirova.
Six years later, this is an assassination attempt on the sitting prime minister.
Robert Fico, for all his radical left-populist drama, was still just doing his job on Wednesday, chairing a cabinet meeting in the tiny former mining town of Gundlow.
Because Fico was flown by helicopter to nearby Banska Bystrica rather than to the capital Bratislava, the severity of his wounds made the political establishment appear frozen:
Who was the main one? What’s happened? How did this happen?
On the latter question, at least, one answer has dominated the debate: political polarization.
The hateful rhetoric we are witnessing must stop,” said President Zuzana Caputová. Please let’s stop this!
Emotions are naturally high, but it would be very bad to inflame this already dangerous situation, agreed Interior Minister Matus Shutai Eshtok.
However, some members of the ruling coalition did not appear to have received the memo. Lubos Blaha, a pro-Russian lawmaker from Fico’s Smer party, shouted at the opposition in parliament that the prime minister was “fighting for his life today because of your hatred.”
Deputy Speaker of Parliament Andrej Danko, head of the far-right Slovak National Party, asked the opposition: “Are you happy?” He added ominously: “There will be some changes in the media.”
Slovakia ended up where it is today – so divided between liberals and traditionalists, democrats and thugs, tolerance and its opposite – that political differences are now settled by guns? — writes Politico/
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.