Bulgarian police probing journalist Viktoria Marinova's murder detain Romanian
Detectives say they are checking out the alibi of the man and will hold him for 24 hours but they "have no concrete suspect".
Wednesday 10 October 2018 09:12, UK
Bulgarian police investigating the killing of journalist Viktoria Marinova have detained a man.
Ms Marinova's body was discovered in a park in the northern city of Ruse near the River Danube on Saturday.
Police said a Romanian citizen of Ukrainian origin was being detained for 24 hours while his alibi is checked.
Teodor Atanasov, the head of Ruse regional police said: "We have in custody a person whose alibi we are checking, but for the time being we do not have a concrete suspect. Work with him is continuing,"
The 30-year-old victim, who had reported on an investigation into alleged corruption involving EU funds, suffered blows to the head and had been suffocated.
Ruse prosecutor Georgy Georgiev said her mobile phone, car keys, glasses and some of her clothes were missing.
The murder case has shocked fellow journalists and sparked international condemnation.
![鈥疨ic: CPS
Images of two defendants in fake ID seized from Bulgarian gang found guilty of spying for Russia in a huge espionage operation from a guesthouse in Great Yarmouth. Left is Katrin Ivanova, [DOB: 01/07/1991], is of Harrow, north-west London. Right is Tihomir Ivanchev, [DOB: 31/07/1985], is of Acton, west London](https://e3.365dm.com/25/03/192x108/AG百家乐在线官网news-katrin-ivanova-tihomir-ivanchev_6849259.png?20250307175120)
Ms Marinova had presented a recently relaunched current affairs programme called Detector for the TVN television channel in Ruse.
The first episode, which aired on 30 September, featured interviews with investigative journalists Dimitar Stoyanov from the Bivol.bg website and Attila Biro from the Romanian Rise Project.
The programme investigated alleged fraud involving EU funds linked to big businessmen and politicians.
Officials and the police said there was no evidence to suggest Ms Marinova's murder was related to her work and there was no information to say she had been threatened.
But Bivol.bg owner Asen Yordanov said he had received credible information his journalists were in danger of being assaulted because of the investigation that featured on Ms Marinova's show.
He said: "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."
Ms Marinova is the third European journalist to be killed in the past year.
Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta's best-known investigative journalist, was killed in a car bombing last October.
Slovakian journalist Jan Kuciak was shot dead in February.
Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi has been missing, with Turkey expressing fear he was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.