The murderer of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova will spend the next 23 years of his life in prison. Former Slovak soldier Miroslav Marcek already pleaded guilty a couple of months ago to killing the young Slovak journalist and his fianceé Martina Kusnirova in February 2018. Now it was up to jury at Slovak Special Criminal Court to consider how long Marcek will stay behind the bars.

The todays verdict: Marcek, the hitman hired to shoot the young couple, was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

He was also sentenced for killing local Slovak businessman Peter Molnar in 2016.

The verdict is not valid yet, though. Marcek can still appeal to the Highest Court.

He knocked on the door

Marcek only started to speak about his involvement in killing Kuciak and Kusnirova in April last year after spending seven months in police custody. He admitted his guilt at the beginning of the trial with the murderers in January earlier this year.

According to his version, he firstly knocked on the door of their house and when Kuciak opened the door, he shot him dead. However, the body of Kuciak was found on the staircase leading to the storage room inside the house.

He also killed Kuciak's fianceé Kusnirova. They were both 27 years old at that time.

None of the two victims had chance to survive the shootings, confirmed the experts. Kuciak was killed with two shots fired into his chest while Kusnirova died from a single shot in the head.

Marcek also previously admitted to lowering the amount of gun powder in his projectiles. He needed this adjustment in order to properly operate the silencer. Experts confirmed that projectiles found at the scene had lower amount of gun powder in them and thus confirmed Marcek's previous testimony.

The mastermind will face a separate trial

The man accused of masterminding the murder is a controversial businessman Marian Kocner, who threatened Kuciak in the past for his articles. Kocner will face his own trial later this year.

The killings triggered a political crisis that resulted in major protests, the dismissal of the national police chief and the collapse of the social-democratic government led by Robert Fico's party of Smer.

The crisis later also led to the fall of Smer after parliamentary elections, which couldn't form the next government.

The elections in February were won by the anti-corupt but also populist movement OLaNO led by current prime minister Igor Matovic, who previously this year formed the new government with another populist party Sme Rodina (We Are Family), neoliberal SaS (Freedom and solidarity) and the centrist party Za ludi (For the people) founded by former Slovak president Andrej Kiska.