Bulgarian national radio reported today that a suspect was arrested in connection with the murder of Bulgarian television reporter Viktoria Marinova, whose body was found dumped after she highlighted possible government corruption, according to AP.
UPDATE: Bulgarian authorities have released the Romanian citizen they had detained earlier on Tuesday, sources in the Romanian Police told Mediafax. Bulgarian police said the individual’s alibi was confirmed so they no longer had a reason to hold him as a suspect in the case.
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The report cited unconfirmed information from the Bulgarian Interior Ministry that the suspect is “a Romanian citizen with a passport from Moldova.” Later, Reuters reported that the suspect was a Romanian citizen of Ukrainian origin.
No other information has been made public for the time being.
Prosecutors said late Monday they had opened an investigation into the suspected misuse of European Union funds, as police investigate the rape and slaying of Marinova, whose strangled body was found Saturday dumped near the Danube River. Marinova, 30, hosted a show last month featuring two investigative journalists who were detained for their work on suspected fraud involving EU funds.
The two journalists, Romanian Attila Biro, editor of the Romanian investigative site Rise Project, and Dimitar Stoyanov, from Bivol, a Bulgarian investigative news website, were working on an investigation as part of the project “Exposing Fraud in EU-funded Projects in Romania and Bulgaria.”