Bratislava, Feb 27 (CTK) – The case of the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend in Slovakia has a link to the Czech Republic, Police President Tibor Gaspar said today, adding that Slovak investigators have launched cooperation with the Czech and Italian police and also with Europol.

 

The Aktuality.sk server, for which Kuciak worked, has written that he was working on an article saying that Slovak PM Robert Fico surrounded himself with people with links to persons standing close to the Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia.

 

Gaspar said the Slovak police first turned to their counterparts in the Czech Republic. He would not specify why they did so, only said that the case has a certain link to the Czech Republic.

 

Furthermore, the Slovak police are in contact with the police in Italy, and they have received Europol’s offer to use its experts in analysing mobile devices, Gaspar said.

 

“We did not know whether our [Slovak] expert institute is capable of breaking the devices’ protective elements,” he said.

 

The Slovak police are assessing e-mails and more than 20 reports on the special phone line which they established for the public to use within the investigation into Kuciak’s murder.

 

On Monday, the Slovak government promised a reward of one million euros for information helping catch the perpetrators.