Slovakia's Supreme Court upholds 21-year sentence for PM Fico's attacker


Juraj Cintula, accused of the 2024 attack on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, gets into a car with security officials after the verdict on the final day of his trial, at the Specialised Criminal Court in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, October 21, 2025. REUTERS/Radovan Stoklasa / File Photo

April 29 (Reuters) - Slovakia's ⁠Supreme Court upheld on Wednesday a 21-year ⁠jail sentence for a man who ‌shot at Prime Minister Robert Fico two years ago, rejecting his appeal against terrorism charges, Slovak media reported.

A Slovak ​court last October ruled that ⁠Juraj Cintula, now 73, ⁠was guilty of terrorism charges for shooting at ⁠Fico ‌five times from a close distance while the prime minister greeted a ⁠crowd in a central Slovak town in ​May 2024.

"The ‌planning of the attack, combined with the ⁠knowledge that ​he was attacking the prime minister, indicates that he must have been aware of the negative ⁠effect on the functioning of ​government power," online news website Dennik N quoted Judge Petr Kana as saying in the court's ⁠justification.

The Supreme Court's verdict is final, TASR news agency said.

The court did not reply to a request for comment.

The 2024 attack, which pointed ​to deep political polarisation in ⁠the central European country of 5.4 million ​people, left Fico in a ‌critical condition but he later ​recovered and returned to work.

(Reporting by Jason Hovet in PragueEditing by Gareth Jones)

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