A Bulgarian citizen has been detained in Germany by police in the case of the slain journalist Viktoria Marinova. The 30-year-old disappeared after going for a run and was found dead on Saturday in a park near Ruse. According to the Bulgarian authorities, quoted by The Guardian, the suspect, a 21-year-old man, will be accused of rape and murder in absentia.
Bulgaria’s prosecutor general, Sotir Tsatsarov, named the suspect as Severin Krasimirov.
The journalist was working for Ruse-based broadcaster TVN. She presented a current affairs talk programme called “Detector” for the private television network. In the first episode, which turned out to be the last,she interviewed two investigative journalists, Dimitar Stoyanov, from Bivol, a Bulgarian investigative news website and Bulgarian Romanian Attila Biro, editor of the Romanian investigative site Rise Project.
The two are investigating fraud in connection with EU-funded projects in Romania and Bulgaria.
According to Bulgaria’s interior minister, Mladen Marinov, the Bulgarian police found physical evidence to link Krasimirov to the murder. A resident of Ruse, Krasimirov had a criminal record for scrap metal theft. “There is no apparent link to her work,” he said of the murder.
On Tuesday, Bulgarian police detained a Romanian citizen in connection with the murder. He was later released with no charge.