Slovak authorities have recategorized the attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico and will now investigate it as a terrorist attack and not as an attempted murder, the prosecutor's office announced today, quoted by France Presse, quoted by BTA.
Fico is currently recovering from serious injuries he suffered when he was shot four times at close range on May 15 while greeting supporters at the end of a government meeting in the central Slovakian town of Handlova.
Following the attack, the alleged perpetrator, identified by Slovak media as the 71-year-old poet Juraj Cintula, was charged with attempted murder and remanded in custody.
The case was recategorized, Zuzana Drobova, spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office, told AFP.
"Today we informed the suspect that this is now a particularly serious crime - a terrorist attack,", she added, without giving further details.
Fifty-nine-year-old Fizo heads a three-party coalition made up of his populist centrist party "Direction - Social Democracy", the centrist party "Voice" and the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS).
After the attack, he underwent two lengthy operations at a hospital in the city of Banska Bystrica, central Slovakia, and was transported to the capital Bratislava on May 31 and discharged for home treatment.