Police detain suspect in connection with Bulgarian journalist killing
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Update
A man has been detained over the killing of Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova, police say. Viktoria Marinova’s body was found in a park in the northern city of Ruse, near the River Danube, on Saturday. She had also been raped.
The man is described as a Romanian citizen of Ukrainian descent. On Monday hundreds of mourners held vigils around Bulgaria, said to be the worst country in the European Union for press freedom.
Ruse police chief Teodor Atanasov said the man, who also had a Moldovan passport, was being held for 24 hours for questioning.
“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,” Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.
On Monday the town’s regional prosecutor, Georgy Georgiev, said Ms Marinova had suffered blows to the head and was suffocated in the fatal attack, adding that her “mobile phone, car keys, glasses and part of her clothes were missing”.
It is not known if the killing is linked to Ms Marinova’s work at a local TV station.
BBC
Earlier
Bulgarian police have detained a suspect in connection with the killing of investigative journalist Viktoria Marinova, whose body was found in a park in her hometown of Ruse four days ago, a government source familiar with the investigation told Reuters on Tuesday.
“We can say there is a suspect detained,” the source said, declining to elaborate.
An Interior Ministry spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny the information and said the ministry might issue a statement later on Tuesday.
The report said that according to unconfirmed information from the interior ministry, the suspect is “a Romanian citizen with a passport from Moldova.” No other information was immediately available.
