Journalist’s murder shocks Bulgaria
SOFIA: A journalist has been raped and murdered in Bulgaria’s town of Ruse, prosecutors and a minister said on Sunday, in a case that has shocked fellow journalists and sparked international condemnation.
Viktoria Marinova ( pix), 30, was found on Saturday close to a jogging path by the Danube, prosecutor Georgy Georgiev said.
The death was caused by blows to the head and suffocation and most probably occurred in broad daylight, he added. “Her mobile phone, car keys, glasses and part of her clothes were missing,” Georgiev said, adding prosecutors are probing all leads – both personal and linked to her job.
Interior minister Mladen Marinov later confirmed the victim had also been raped.
Premier Boyko Borisov said a large amount of evidence had been collected and “it is just a matter of time before the perpetrator is found”.
Police sources said the crime did not immediately appear to be linked to her work.
But it sparked immediate international condemnation with the OSCE’s media freedom representative Harlem Desir calling for “a full and thorough investigation,” through Twitter.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “shocked by the barbaric murder”.
Marinova presented a current affairs talk show called Detector for small private TVN television.
The programme had recently been relaunched.
The first episode on Sept 30 broadcast interviews with investigative journalists Dimitar Stoyanov from the Bivol.bg website and Attila Biro from the Romanian Rise Project, about an investigation into alleged fraud involving EU funds linked to big businessmen and politicians.
The pair were briefly detained by police while attempting to stop the destruction of documents linked to the scheme.
“We are in shock ... never have we received any threats – aimed at her or the television,” a TVN journalist who wished to remain anonymous said, adding he and his colleagues feared for their safety.
He described his colleague as “extremely disciplined, ambitious, always putting herself fully into what she is doing and a person with an extreme sense of justice”.
Bivol.bg owner Asen Yordanov said his media had received credible information that its journalists are in danger because of the investigation that also appeared on Marinova’s show.
“Viktoria’s death, the brutal manner in which she was killed, is an execution. It was meant to serve as an example, something like a warning,” he said. – AFP