Kuciak and Kusnirova Also Commemorated Abroad, Hundreds of People Meet in Prague

Prague, February 21 (TASR-correspondent) - The seventh anniversary of the murders of Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova was also commemorated on Friday by Slovaks living abroad, with several hundred of them gathering on Jan Palach Square in Prague. The event began at the Academic Parish of the St. Salvator Church in Prague, where the local parish priest, Tomas Halik, addressed the attendees. After the end of the ecumenical meeting, people moved in a candlelight march to Jan Palach Square, where speeches were given, for example, by the Student Forum of Slovaks Abroad and the Platform for Democracy. During the commemoration, the winner of a competition to design a memorial to Jan Kuciak in Prague was also announced. A commemoration was also held in Brno. In addition to the Slovak journalist and his partner, the organisers said they also wanted to express their concern in relation to the political situation in Slovakia and the statements made by members of the Slovak government about the media. In addition to Prague and Brno, people commemorated the memory of Kuciak and Kusnirova in Vienna, Budapest, Brussels, London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Aarhus in Denmark, Newbridge in Ireland, Oxford and Oslo. Journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova were murdered on February 21, 2018 in their family house in Velka Maca (Trnava region). The most probable motive according to the police was Kuciak's investigative journalistic work. am/mcs