The populist government has blamed the 2024 attack on ‘hatred’ spread by opposition and critical media.
A Slovak court has convicted the pensioner who shot Prime Minister Robert Fico last year of a “terror attack” and sentenced him to 21 years in prison.
The Specialised Criminal Court in Banska Bystrica convicted and sentenced 72-year-old Juraj Cintula on Tuesday, saying he had acted “with a motivation to stop a proper functioning of the government” in a “particularly serious” crime.
Cintula, a poet from Levice in western Slovakia, shot Fico four times at close range on May 15, 2024 as the premier left a government meeting in central Slovakia.
He later claimed he was driven by “moral despair”. Fico was left seriously wounded but returned to work two months later.
The shooting and subsequent trial have shaken the small NATO-member country.
Now serving his fourth term as prime minister, Fico has repeatedly accused the liberal opposition and media of fuelling the assassination attempt, without presenting evidence.
Prosecutors originally charged Cintula with premeditated murder, but they later reclassified the shooting as a “terror attack”, citing his political motivation.
Critics have said that since the shooting, the populist Fico has become increasingly divisive, accelerating his alignment of Slovakia’s foreign policy with Russia, increasing criticism of the European Union, and implementing authoritarian and hardline conservative policy.
‘Most likely appeal’
“It was worth it,” local media quoted Cintula as shouting as he left court earlier this month after giving his closing trial statement.
After the shooting, Cintula had told police he wanted to protest against steps taken by Fico’s government, including the halting of military aid to war-ravaged Ukraine, according to a leaked video.
He claimed he had sought to hurt, but not kill, the prime minister.
In his final trial statement, a visibly emotional Cintula told the court he had been overcome with “moral despair”, accusing the prime minister of being “drunk with power” and making “irrational decisions that damage this country”.
He called his defence “a manifesto … for all those who feel that the arrogance of power, corruption and lies has no place in the country where our children will grow up”.
“The premier … embodied years of accumulated frustration and despair,” Cintula said.
Cintula’s lawyer, Namir Alyasry, told reporters after the hearing that he would “most likely appeal” the verdict.
The prime minister was not present at the trial and did not immediately comment on the verdict.
He previously said he forgave the attacker, whom he described as merely a “messenger of evil and political hatred” developed by the “politically unsuccessful and frustrated opposition”.
Since his return to office in 2023, Fico’s government has launched a crackdown on nonprofit organisations, cultural institutions and some media outlets it deems “hostile”, prompting mass protests.
Fico has also angered the opposition by calling for an end to Slovakia’s support for Ukraine, criticising EU sanctions targeting Russia and saying he would not allow Ukraine to join NATO.
Last month, the Slovak parliament approved a constitutional amendment to limit the rights of same-sex couples as part of a sweeping change that also states that national law takes precedence over EU law.