A former soldier has been jailed for 23 years for shooting dead an investigative journalist in a killing that ultimately brought down Slovakia's government.

Miroslav Marcek, who was not present at the sentencing, had confessed to the murder of Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova in February 2018.

Mr Kuciak had reported on corruption and the links of influential businessmen to senior political, judicial and police figures, and his killing triggered nationwide protests.

"It was cold-blooded and malicious. The victims did not have a chance to defend themselves," judge Ruzena Szabova said at the hearing in Pezinok, north of Bratislava.

Image: Mr Kuciak was looking into suspected Mafia links among Italian businessmen in eastern Slovakia

"His confession was a mitigating circumstance."


Mr Kuciak was shot in the chest and his fiancee was shot in the head at their home east of the capital Bratislava.

Prosecutor Juraj Novocky had requested a 25-year sentence and appealed against the judge's decision.

Businessman Marian Kocner, who was a target of Kuciak's reporting and verbally threatened him in September 2017, is standing trial with two others in separate hearings after being charged with masterminding and paying for the murder.

Prosecutors claimed he paid Marcek 70,000 euros (£61,500) for the killing.

High-level corruption and the Kuciak case were the main themes of campaigning in the EU country's general election in February.

Image: The killings sparked outrage in Slovakia

The centre-right Ordinary People (OLANO) led by Igor Matovic won a quarter of votes and formed a four-party coalition government, ousting the centre-left Smer after it had held power for 12 of the past 14 years.

Marcek's cousin Tomas Szabo and Alena Zsuzsova are among other defendants whose trial is due to resume on 15 April.

All three deny charges of murder, although Kocner pleaded guilty to illegal ownership of ammunition found by the police in his home.

Zoltan Andrusko previously admitted to facilitating the murder and was sentenced to 15 years in prison in December last year.

As part of his confession in the Kuciak case, Marcek also admitted to murdering businessman Peter Molnar in 2016.