Court continues reading victim statements in trial over journalist Kuciak murder contract

A Slovak court resumed proceedings in the case involving the contract killing of journalist Ján Kuciak by reading statements from victims, with the defendants not present in the courtroom. The trial centers on the 2018 murder of Kuciak, an investigative journalist whose death shocked Slovakia and triggered massive protests that led to the resignation of then-Prime Minister Robert Fico. Kuciak had been investigating alleged ties between Italian organized crime and Slovak political figures when he and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová were shot dead at their home. The case has been one of the most significant criminal proceedings in modern Slovak history, involving multiple defendants including alleged masterminds and executors of the contract killing.