site.btaBrutal Murder of Bulgarian Journalist Causes Shock Beyond Bulgarian Border

Brutal Murder
of Bulgarian Journalist Last Weekend
Causes Shock Beyond Bulgarian Border


Sofia, October 8 (BTA) - The brutal murder of Bulgarian journalist Victoria Marinova (30) on Saturday caused an outrage in Bulgaria and abroad. Reactions have come from international organizations of journalists, the EU and European politicians. In Bulgaria, various groups are organizing through the social networks vigils for the murdered journalists on Monday evening. The Sofia event will be held in the square rimmed by the headquarters of the Government, President's Office and Parliament.

Marinova was the host of a current affairs programme on TVN, a local TV channel in the Danubian town of Rousse. Her last show was on corruption in public procurement and possible misuse of EU funding. It remains unclear whether the murder was related to her work.

Her body was found on Sunday and police said that she had been raped, beaten, and strangled.

Rousse Chief Prosecutor Georgi Georgiev told the press Sunday that the police are looking into all possible clues.

Speaking in Rousse, Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov and Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said that the entire expert capacity of the Interior Ministry has been called up to work on the brutal murder. All leads are being followed: from an accidental attack by a mentally-ill person with a strong sex drive to a planned attack with a private motive. The two officials said that none of the leads will be underestimated or ruled out. Both described the acts of the perpetrator as "extremely brutal and cruel".

A team of the Institute of Psychology is profiling the suspected perpetrator. The life of the victim is being examined, both her private and professional life.

The murder was commented by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, who said that it is only a matter of time for police to reach the perpetrators and that the best crime investigators had been sent to Rousse to work on the case.

The head of the Criminal Department in the local police, Chief Inspector Nikolai Kozhouharov, made a point of saying that "the probe into a link between the murder and the woman's work is likely to be dropped at a later stage of the investigation".

Politicians from the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) commented that apparently, it was the reaction from international media outlets that revealed the gravity of the crime. Secretary of the BSP parliamentary group Kristian Vigenin said that Bulgaria's 111th place in the media freedom ranking "has been confirmed". Vigenin said that no one should remain indifferent.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPT) and Reporters without Borders (RSF) issued strong-worded statements of shock and outrage. CPT urged the Bulgarian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and find the perpetrators and RSF calls for protection for the colleagues of the murdered journalist.

RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said his organization urges the authorities to carry out "a serious and thorough investigation to find the perpetrators of this heinous murder". "We call for police protection to be provided for the TVN journalists who worked with Victoria Marinova on the same sensitive report, pending the outcome of the investigation," he said as quoted by RSF.

CPJ European Union Representative Tom Gibson in Brussels said CPJ "is shocked by the barbaric murder of journalist Victoria Marinova". "Bulgarian authorities must employ all efforts and resources to carry out an exhaustive inquiry and bring to justice those responsible."

Shock and condemnation was also expressed by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Desir. He said in a statement that he will closely follow the investigation opened by the authorities and urges them to swiftly identify and bring to justice those responsible and to clearly determine whether this attack was linked to her work.

The chair of the EPP group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, said on Twitter he was shocked by the brutal murder. "My thoughts are with her family. She is the third journalist killed in the EU in one year. This is deeply worrying. A full investigation by the Bulgarian authorities is needed urgently," he twitted.

European Green Party co-chairs Monica Frassoni and Reinhard Butikofer said they were deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the terrible murder of the Bulgarian journalist. "The perpetrators of this tremendous crime must be brought to justice. The Bulgarian authorities must also show they are serious about protecting journalists who are the cornerstone of a functioning democracy and call for an immediate, independent inquiry," they said.

Taking a reporter's question at a news briefing in Brussels, the European Commission said the murder is saddening and they expect a fast and thorough investigation to bring to justice those who are responsible, and find out whether the killing was related to the journalist's work.

EU Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourova wrote in a tweet that she was shocked and that she will offer help by the EU agencies. "I will follow closely the investigation and offer help by EU agencies, if needed. I expect urgent actions to bring those responsible to justice and to clarify if the attack was linked to her work."

The tweet prompted a response from the Bulgarian investigative journalism site bivol.bg who did the original investigation about corruption and fraud with EU money, which was in the focus of Victoria Marinova's last broadcast. "Hope so. We didn't see any EU reaction after we published the #GPGate investigation. The one Victoria Marinova exposed in her last and final broadcast," Bivol responded to Commissioner Jourova.

Most comments point out that Marinova is the third journalist to have been killed in the EU in a year, following the murders of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2017, and Slovak reporter Jan Kuciak, who was killed in February this year. RY, LY/LN, ZH

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