Fico’s ‘Judas’ government should have backed Ukraine, shooting suspect says

Juraj Cintula, the man who allegedly shot Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico last week, didn’t mean to kill his victim — just to “damage his health” so he would be unable to continue as the country’s leader and pursue policies with which the shooter disagreed.

That’s according to a pre-trial detention order issued by a Slovak judge and released to media Thursday.

Fico was critically injured in the attack, which took place following a Cabinet meeting in the former mining town of Handlová, about two hours’ drive from Bratislava. As Fico approached a crowd of onlookers, Cintula fired five bullets at his lower abdomen, striking him four times.

The prime minister was airlifted to hospital in nearby Banská Bystrica and underwent two surgeries. His condition is listed as serious but stable, and he is expected to recover. The Cabinet is now under temporary leadership by Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák, who is also deputy PM.

According to the court document, Cintula claimed to be feeling “powerless and frustrated with the state of society” following changes introduced by Fico’s leftist-populist government since it came to power last October.

The suspect said he “doesn’t agree with the policies of the current government, including the abolition of the Office of the Special Prosecutor,” which handled top political and organized crime cases, and he “doesn’t agree with the persecution of culture and media workers.”

He said what he mainly wants is for “military assistance to be given to Ukraine,” and “regards the current government as a Judas toward the European Union,” so he “decided to act.”

Fico, who is serving his fourth term as Slovakia’s prime minister, has championed a revision of the country’s criminal code which reduced punishments for crimes of corruption and abolished the special prosecutor’s office, which has handled dozens of graft, organized crime and abuse of power cases against police, judges, oligarchs and MPs connected to Fico’s Smer (Direction) party.

He also refused to continue supporting Ukraine militarily as it tries to fend off Russia’s full-scale invasion, and has taken a more pro-Moscow stance.

A witness cited by the court decision claimed to have heard Cintula say “hostile and spiteful things” about Fico, and that “he was bothered by how [Fico] acts toward Russia and Hungary, that he has a good relationship with them.”

According to the court document, Cintula decided on May 13 — two days before the attack — that he would “take revenge on this government for its policies by injuring the prime minister” using a gun he had legally owned since 1992. The weapon was a 9 millimeter Czech-made CZ 75 handgun, which Cintula carried in a rear holster strapped to his belt, along with two clips containing 10 bullets each.

Cintula told authorities that on May 15, he waited for an hour while the Cabinet met, until Fico emerged from the building and approached a small crowd standing behind a barricade on the town’s main square. He said he fired into the right side of the prime minister’s abdomen as Fico was shaking hands at a distance of two meters: “Even a blind man would have hit [the target],” the court document recorded him as saying.

The attacker added he knew Fico might die, but that he was prepared to take the risk because “he is socially sensitive and the things that are going on in society irritate him mightily.”

Cintula said he had acted alone and not told anyone of his intentions. “He did what he intended to do,” the court document stated. “He realizes that he acted unacceptably, and that he shouldn’t have wounded the victim, but instead given him a book that he had bought for him and had ready.”

The judge remanded Cintula in custody, ruling there was a risk he might try to attack Fico again.

He faces a sentence of 25 years to life if convicted.