Slovakia’s interior ministry is starting to work on the assumption that the suspect in the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Robert Fico may not have acted as a “lone wolf,” as was previously believed.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said on Sunday that “the crime may have been committed by a certain group of people,” rather than a lone disgruntled citizen. This view has been given credence by the fact the suspect’s online “communication history” was deleted just two hours after the attack. This deletion was not carried out by Fico’s attacker, nor by his wife, who reports say “is not technically proficient enough to be able to delete the communication.”
Officials also said on Sunday that Fico is now out of immediate danger but remains in intensive care after he was shot several times at point-blank range by 71-year-old Juraj Cintula.
Cintula is a poet and writer with no previous criminal record, but he had taken part in anti-Fico demonstrations and had been planning the attack for a few days. Pointing to Cintula’s attendance at two government meetings before the one where he launched this attack, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak said: “I guess he was waiting for an opportunity.”
He now faces 25 years in prison or life imprisonment for attempted murder.
No official statement has been made public from the suspect or any of his legal representatives in the five days since the attack. Slovak police said over the weekend that three people have been arrested in relation to social media posts expressing approval of the assassination.
