{"id":3417,"date":"2025-10-21T12:40:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T12:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/21\/slovak-court-sentences-poet-that-shot-pm-to-21-years-for-terror-attack\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T12:40:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T12:40:30","slug":"slovak-court-sentences-poet-that-shot-pm-to-21-years-for-terror-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/21\/slovak-court-sentences-poet-that-shot-pm-to-21-years-for-terror-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Slovak court sentences poet that shot PM to 21 years for \u2018terror attack\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The populist government has blamed the 2024 attack on \u2018hatred\u2019 spread by opposition and critical media.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A Slovak court has convicted the pensioner who shot Prime Minister Robert Fico last year of a \u201cterror attack\u201d and sentenced him to 21 years in prison.<\/p>\n

The Specialised Criminal Court in Banska Bystrica convicted and sentenced 72-year-old Juraj Cintula on Tuesday, saying he had acted \u201cwith a motivation to stop a proper functioning of the government\u201d in a \u201cparticularly serious\u201d crime.<\/p>\n

Cintula, a poet from Levice in western Slovakia, shot Fico four times at close range<\/a> on May 15, 2024 as the premier left a government meeting in central Slovakia.<\/p>\n

He later claimed he was driven by \u201cmoral despair\u201d. Fico was left seriously wounded but returned to work two months later.<\/p>\n

The shooting and subsequent trial have shaken the small NATO-member country.<\/p>\n

Now serving his fourth term as prime minister, Fico has repeatedly accused<\/a> the liberal opposition and media of fuelling the assassination attempt, without presenting evidence.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors originally charged Cintula with premeditated murder, but they later reclassified the shooting as a \u201cterror attack\u201d, citing his political motivation.<\/p>\n

Critics have said that since the shooting, the populist Fico has become increasingly divisive, accelerating his alignment of Slovakia\u2019s foreign policy with Russia, increasing criticism of the European Union, and implementing authoritarian and hardline conservative policy.<\/p>\n

\u2018Most likely appeal\u2019<\/h2>\n

\u201cIt was worth it,\u201d local media quoted Cintula as shouting as he left court earlier this month after giving his closing trial statement.<\/p>\n

After the shooting, Cintula had told police he wanted to protest against steps taken by Fico\u2019s government, including the halting of military aid to war-ravaged Ukraine, according to a leaked video.<\/p>\n

He claimed he had sought to hurt, but not kill, the prime minister.<\/p>\n

In his final trial statement, a visibly emotional Cintula told the court he had been overcome with \u201cmoral despair\u201d, accusing the prime minister of being \u201cdrunk with power\u201d and making \u201cirrational decisions that damage this country\u201d.<\/p>\n

He called his defence \u201ca manifesto \u2026 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe premier \u2026 embodied years of accumulated frustration and despair,\u201d Cintula said.<\/p>\n

Cintula\u2019s lawyer, Namir Alyasry, told reporters after the hearing that he would \u201cmost likely appeal\u201d the verdict.<\/p>\n

\"Juraj
Juraj Cintula (R) listens to his lawyer, Namir Alyasry, after the verdict, October 21, 2025 [Radovan Stoklasa\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The prime minister was not present at the trial and did not immediately comment on the verdict.<\/p>\n

He previously said he forgave the attacker, whom he described as merely a \u201cmessenger of evil and political hatred\u201d developed by the \u201cpolitically unsuccessful and frustrated opposition\u201d.<\/p>\n

Since his return to office in 2023, Fico\u2019s government has launched a crackdown on nonprofit organisations, cultural institutions and some media outlets it deems \u201chostile\u201d, prompting mass protests<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fico has also angered the opposition by calling for an end to Slovakia\u2019s support for Ukraine, criticising EU sanctions targeting Russia and saying he would not allow Ukraine to join NATO.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Slovak parliament approved a constitutional amendment<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The populist government has blamed the 2024 attack on \u2018hatred\u2019 spread by opposition and critical media. A Slovak court has convicted the pensioner who shot Prime Minister Robert Fico last year of a \u201cterror attack\u201d and sentenced him to 21 years in prison. The Specialised Criminal Court in Banska Bystrica convicted and sentenced 72-year-old Juraj … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}