Who is the alleged attacker of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico?

(CNN Spanish) — More than 24 hours after the attack, Slovak authorities confirmed to CNN the identity of the suspect in the attempted assassination of the country’s Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Feco was shot multiple times after a government meeting on Wednesday, initially threatening his life. After being in surgery for more than five hours, the President was out of danger of death.

According to local media, the alleged attacker was among a small crowd of people waiting to welcome the prime minister on the street in front of the cultural center where the meeting was held.

Below, we tell you what we know about the suspect.

Name, age and city of origin

The Slovak prosecutor’s office confirmed the alleged attacker’s identity to CNN after questioning him: He is Juraj C, 71, from the town of Levice in south-western Slovakia.

“I can confirm that this is the same person who has been charged with attempted murder,” Zuzana Drobova, a spokeswoman for the country’s prosecutor’s office, told CNN on Thursday.

political motivations

Slovak authorities said the alleged attacker shot Fico five times.

Slovakia’s Defense Minister Robert Kalinac and the country’s Interior Minister Mateusz Sutaj Estok said the attack was “politically motivated”.

Sutaj Estok commented that “the suspect decided to do this immediately after the presidential election.”

“The reasons for this were the decision to abolish the Special Prosecutor’s Office, the decision to stop military aid to Ukraine, the reform of the public broadcasting service and the dismissal of the head of the Judicial Council,” he said.

Sutaj Estok also said that the suspect is not a member of any extremist group, calling him a “lone wolf who decided to take action after the presidential election” and that he had participated in anti-government protests in the past.

This Saturday, Slovakia’s Special Criminal Court ruled that the man remains in custody, according to a court spokesman. “The reason for the arrest is the fear of possible flight, as well as the continuation of criminal activity,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“The trial judge did not accept the defendant’s written promise and rejected the probation and mediation officer’s motion for supervision,” the statement said.

The hearing was closed to the media and public and took place in Pezinok, a town near the capital Bratislava.

According to the statement, the outcome of the court’s decision is not “fully binding”, giving the accused the opportunity to “appeal against the decision to the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic”.

With reporting by CNN’s Ivana Kotasova, Sugam Pokharel, Zahid Mahmood, Jesse Yeung, Duarte Mendonca.