Thousands have rallied in dozens of cities and towns across Slovakia to mark the sixth anniversary of the slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee amid a wave of anti-government protests.

A court in Slovakia has acquitted for a second time a businessman accused of masterminding the 2018 slaying of an investigative journalist and his fiancée.

Police in Slovakia say former Prime Minister Robert Fico and his ex-interior minister face criminal charges.

Slovakia has marked the anniversary of the 2018 slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee by unveiling a monument to honor them at a central square in the capital of Bratislava.

An appeals court in Slovakia has dismissed a lower court’s acquittal of a businessman accused of masterminding the 2018 slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancée.

On Tuesday Jan. 12, 2021, an appeals court in Slovakia upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a businessman allegedly linked to the slaying of an investigative journalist in Slovakia to 19 years in prison in a separate case of forgery. A court in the town of Pezinok sentenced the two to the same prison terms in February and the country's Supreme Court confirmed on Tuesday the verdict, which is final. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File)BRATISLAVA – An appeals court in Slovakia upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a businessman allegedly linked to the slaying of an investigative journalist in Slovakia to 19 years in prison in a separate case of forgery. A court in the town of Pezinok sentenced the two to the same prison terms in February and the country’s Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed the verdict, which is final. Prosecutors appealed the verdict, but the Supreme Court has yet to rule on that.

(AP Photo/Petr David Josek)PEZINOK A panel of judges in Slovakia on Thursday acquitted a businessman accused of masterminding the 2018 slayings of an investigative journalist who had written about him and the journalist's fiancee. The judges cleared the businessman, Marian Kocner, and one co-defendant of murder in the killings of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, both 27. Judge Ruzena Sabova at the Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok said there was not enough evidence for the convictions. The parents of Kuciak and Kusnirova left the courtroom before the reading of the sentence was completed. Former soldier Miroslav Marcek pleaded guilty to shooting Kuciak and Kusnirova and was sentenced to 23 years in prison in April.

BRATISLAVA BRATISLAVA, SlovakiaFormer Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini announced Wednesday a plan to leave his leftist party to establish a new center-left political organization. Pellegrini has been deputy chairman of the Smer-Social Democracy party, which had dominated Slovakia's politics since 2006 before being ousted from power by a center-right party in the February parliamentary election. He has clashed with the party chairman, former Premier Robert Fico, over the scandal-tainted partys future following the disappointing loss in the election. Pellegrini said he wants to form a new center-left party, saying he would be doing it from scratch and expected other Smer lawmakers to join him. A recent poll suggested it might be as popular as the Ordinary People led by Prime Minister Igor Matovic, a center-right group that won the the Feb. 29 election.