BRATISLAVA: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico spoke in a video posted on Wednesday for the first time since being shot and wounded in an assassination attempt against him last month.

In the video on Facebook, Fico said he forgave the attacker who shot him four times and announced he would be ready to gradually resume his duties starting later this month.

“I feel no hatred towards the stranger who shot me,” Fico said, according to an English translation on the video, looking calm but speaking with long pauses.

“I forgive him and let him sort out what he did and why he did it in his own head,” he added. Fico was shot four times at close range on May 15 as he greeted supporters after a government meeting in the central town of Handlova.

The accused gunman, identified by Slovak media as 71-year-old poet Juraj Cintula, has been charged with premeditated attempted murder and remanded in custody.

Fico was taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Banska Bystrica where he underwent two lengthy surgeries and remained in recovery until he was transferred for home treatment on May 31.

Fico said in the video posted on Wednesday that “if everything goes as planned, I could gradually return to work at the turn of June and July”.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2024