Bulgarians mourn for slain journalist
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Hundreds of relatives, friends and colleagues of slain Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova said their goodbyes at a funeral Friday in her hometown, just after German police announced that a suspect has acknowledged attacking her.
People queued at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in the northern border town of Ruse to pay tribute and lay flowers at the coffin of the 30-year-old, whose body was found last Saturday in a park near the Danube River.
Ruse Mayor Plamen Stoilov told reporters that “the brutal slaying has cast a shadow over the peaceful city.”
Bulgarian prosecutors have identified the suspect as 21-year-old Severin Krassimirov. He has been charged in absentia in Marinova’s rape and killing, and Bulgaria has sought his extradition from Germany, where he was arrested on an international warrant.
German prosecutors earlier said Krassimirov told them he had not meant to kill Marinova, and he denied raping or robbing her.
The Celle prosecutor’s office said the suspect confessed to being under the influence of alcohol and drugs when he got into an argument with a woman he did not know in a park. They say he told them he hit her in the face and threw her into bushes but “denied the intent to kill.”
Prosecutors said Krassimirov will be extradited within the next 10 days.