Martina Kusnirova

Accused Marian Kocner during a public session at the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic in the case of the murder of Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová in Bratislava on June 15, 2021. PHOTO TASR - Jaroslav Novák

The verdict sent shockwaves though a country that had been expecting a vastly different outcome given the weight of evidence presented in this landmark case, which reshaped the country's political landscape and whose impact is still resonating today.

Milan Lucansky rose to prominence on the back of his high-profile crackdown on notorious criminal clans in Slovakia over the past two decades.

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'Trial of the year'

After an investigation that opened a Pandora's Box of revelations about high-level corruption, the trial of four people accused of the brutal killing started this month.

In December, Zoltan Andrusko, a restaurant owner from the southern town of Komarno, was sentenced to 15 years for Kuciak's murder in a separate trial.

"She brought a spirit of positive energy that has broken the bad mood that Slovaks have had for a long time," Zuborova, an analyst at the Bratislava Policy Institute think tank, told BIRN in an interview.

"She also represented a new hope that Slovakia might take a different direction than the rest of Central Europe."

Garton Ash cites a positive example: "Leading the democratic fightback in central Europe today is Slovakia, a country which was an authoritarian laggard in the 1990s, and has had more than its fair share of post-communist corruption in recent years."

And in February, Slovaks will commemorate the second anniversary of the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak's and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova, whose deaths in 2018 sparked protests comparable to those of the Velvet Revolution.

And when, in February 2018, the country was convulsed by the first murder of a journalist in independent Slovakia, protesters again came out in defence of independent journalism and against the cosy ties between business, crime and politics that made the killing possible.

But it speaks also to the growth in popularity of right-wing populists, and an emerging battle for young voters.

'New trend'

Slovakia appeared to strike a powerful blow against the populist surge in Europe with the election in March of progressive political newcomer Zuzana Caputova as president.