UPDATE
May 18, 2024 4:45 PM CDT
After undergoing more surgery, Prime Minister Robert Fico is improving, Slovakia's deputy minister said Saturday. "Several miracles happened," Robert Kalinak told reporters in front of the hospital in Banska Bystrica where Fico was taken after an assassination attempt Wednesday. "He is conscious, with all the limitations of this serious injury." Also Saturday, the suspect in Fico's shooting appeared before a judge and was ordered to remain in custody until his trial, the New York Times reports.
May 16, 2024 11:49 AM CDT
A "lone wolf" suspect has been charged in the attempted assassination of Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot five times at close range at an event Wednesday. The suspect isn't a member of an extremist group, but police said he told them that he disagreed with government reforms, making this a politically motivated crime, said Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok, per CNN.
- Suspect: He's identified by local media as 71-year-old writer and poet Juraj Cintula from the country's south. He had a gun license and formerly worked as a security guard, per Euronews.
- Motive: He disagreed with "the decision to abolish the special prosecutor's office, the decision to stop supplying military assistance to Ukraine, the reform of public service broadcaster [RTVS], and the dismissal of the judicial council head," Sutaj-Estok said, per CNN. Such policy decisions spurred anti-government protests, which Cintula reportedly attended.