Slovakia’s Prime Minister, Robert Fico, was recovering Saturday morning, the country’s deputy minister said, after having a second surgery for injuries he suffered when he was shot in a shooting. assassination on Wednesday.
“Some miracles have happened,” Deputy Secretary Robert Kalinak told reporters. He added of Mr. Fico, “He remains conscious, with all the limitations of this serious injury.”
Mr. Kalinak made the comments in front of FD Roosevelt University Hospital in downtown Banska Bystrica, where Mr. Fico was arrested after being shot multiple times by a lone gunman.
Early Saturday morning, in another part of the country, the 71-year-old man suspect in the shootinga man identified by authorities only as Juraj C., was presented before a judge, who ordered him detained until trial.
The shooting in the central Slovakian town of Handlova was the most serious attack on a European leader in decades.
Mr. Fico was shot multiple times, but Mr. Kalinak explained in a television interview Saturday that one of the wounds posed the greatest risk to Mr. Fico’s health.
Doctors removed infected tissue from that wound area in the second emergency surgery Mr. Fico performed since the attack, Mr. Kalinak said.
Because of the severity of his injuries, Mr. Kalinak said, Mr. Fico will not be able to be transferred to Bratislava, Slovakia’s capital and largest city, for at least a few more days.
Also on Saturday morning, in Pezinok, a city in western Slovakia, about 12 miles from Bratislava, Slovaks and international reporters waited outside the building while special police forces protected the surrounding area. around before bringing the suspect before the judge.
After a closed hearing, the judge ordered the suspect detained until authorities could charge and try him.
Katarina Kudjakova, a court spokeswoman, said: “The reason for detention is fear of possible escape and continued criminal activity.”
