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What we know about Slovak prime minister's suspected attacker

Robert Fico was shot in the town of Handlova
Robert Fico was shot in the town of Handlova

Details have emerged about the suspect for a gun attack on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico who is in a "very serious" but stable condition in an intensive care unit, a day after the assassination attempt.

The man has been charged with attempted murder.

He was apprehended at the scene and is, according to Slovak media, aged 71.

The gunman opened fire at the 59-year-old prime minister as he greeted supporters following a government meeting in the town of Handlova in central Slovakia.

The motive for the attack remains unclear, though Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said the assassination attempt was politically motivated and that the "perpetrator's decision was born closely after the presidential election".

An ally of Mr Fico, Peter Pellegrini, won a fiercely contested presidential election last month.

The suspect is a former security guard at a shopping centre, the author of three collections of poetry and a member of the Slovak Society of Writers, Slovak media reported.

A member of the Rainbow Literary Club in the town of Levice said she knew the suspect, saying he had been one of its founding members and its chairman for a time.

In a statement, the club condemned the attack and said that as a strictly apolitical group it had revoked the assailant's membership "with immediate effect".

In an undated video posted on Facebook, the suspected attacker was seen saying "I do not agree with government policy".

Reuters news agency verified that the person in the video matched images of the man arrested after Mr Fico's shooting.

The suspect lived in Levice, south of Handlova, where the attack occurred, and east of the capital Bratislava, local media reported.

News outlet Aktuality.sk cited his son as saying that his father was the legal holder of a gun licence.

"I have absolutely no idea what my father intended, what he planned, what happened," it quoted the son as saying.

The son said that all he could say about his father's views of Mr Fico is that he did not vote for him.


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Robert Fico, populist veteran of Slovak politics