Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is recovering from injuries sustained in an assassination attempt this month, has been discharged from hospital to undergo treatment at home, Bloomberg reports.
Fico needs “physical and long-term rehabilitation,” the hospital in the central Slovak city of Banska Bystrica said in a statement posted on Facebook on Friday. He was moved to his home in the capital Bratislava.
The 59-year-old Slovak leader was shot four times at close range by an intruder on May 15 after a government meeting in Handlova, northeast of Bratislava. Police arrested the 71-year-old suspect at the scene, with authorities deeming it politically motivated – the first such assassination attempt on a European leader in more than two decades.
Meanwhile, the shooting sent shockwaves across Europe and heightened tensions in one of the region’s most politically polarised countries. Fico’s allies accused the opposition and the media of inciting hostility against the Slovak prime minister. The opposition in turn warned the government not to use the attack to deflect criticism.
Despite its popularity in Slovakia, Fico’s administration faces criticism for rewriting the penal code to weaken anti-corruption tools and seeking to take control of the country’s public television and radio.
The attacker was taken into custody pending trial and also charged with attempted murder. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison or life imprisonment.
