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BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) – Bulgarian police are investigating the rape and murder of a TV reporter whose body was dumped near the Danube after she reported the risk misuse of funds from the European Union in Bulgaria.
The authorities on Saturday uncovered the body of 30-year-old Viktoria Marinova in the northern Russian city of Ruse near the Romanian border. Police said she was raped, beaten and strangled and that her body was found in a park near the river.
Marinova was a director of TVN, a small television channel in Ruse, and a television presenter for two investigative programs.
Groups of journalists and foreign officials have expressed their shock. Harlem Desir, representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in charge of press freedom, called for "a thorough and thorough investigation" into the assassination of Marinova.
An online Bulgarian investigative media site went further, calling for an independent international investigation and claiming that corruption could jeopardize an investigation by Bulgarian law enforcement.
Bulgarian Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said on Monday that there was no evidence to suggest that the murder was related to Marinova's work.
"It's rape and murder," he said.
Chief Attorney General Sotir Tsatsarov, visiting Ruse, said the authorities had no new reasons.
"At this point, let's be careful, not because we have nothing to say, but because every word spoken vaguely could hurt our work," he said.
The Bulgarian police said that she considered all possible scenarios and examined the personal and professional life of Marinova in search of leads.
Hundreds of Bulgarians surrendered Monday night to the vigil to honor Marinova. In Ruse, people in mourning, tears, place candles, his portrait and his roses – the national flower – at the foot of a monument.
In the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, people in mourning gathered in front of a church. One participant, Kristina Petkov, said the Bulgarians now had "zero" trust in the authorities.
"Whatever the results of the investigation (on Marinova's death), people will not believe them," she said.
Corruption is endemic in Bulgaria, a Balkan country that joined the EU in 2007 and ranked 71st on Transparency International's list of corruption organizations last year. The entry into the block has opened up a huge potential for European funding for Bulgarian infrastructure projects or other programs designed to bring the country up to European standards – very attractive funds for civil servants and civil servants. criminal networks.
The latest issue of Marinova, September 30, was a program on Attila Biro, investigative reporter for the Rise Project Romania project, and Dimitar Stoyanov of the Bulgarian investigative site Bivol.bg. The two men were briefly arrested on 13 September south of Sofia, as they were investigating reports that documents related to alleged fraud involving European funds would be destroyed.
The owner of Bivol.bg, Assen Yordanov, said that he could not directly connect the murder of Marinova to his work, but said his show was addressing "our very sensitive investigation into the misuse of European funds ".
"This is a subject on which no other Bulgarian national media has dared to report," he told the Associated Press. "To shed light on the truth, we call for an independent investigation … We want independent European investigators to be involved, because we believe that the Bulgarian authorities are part of the criminal network in this country."
Yordanov said his journalists were under threat for reporting on government corruption.
Margaritis Schinas, spokesperson for European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said on Monday that the commission is expecting "a quick and thorough investigation … that will bring those responsible to justice and clarify whether this aggression is linked to his work".
Juncker is said to have previously stated that "too many" journalists are victims of intimidation, attacks or killings and that "there is no democracy without a free press".
The German government also strongly condemned the murder, the Foreign Ministry stating that it was imperative "that there be a prompt investigation and that this horrible event be brought to light as fully as possible." ".
Sven Giegold, a German member of the Green Party in the European Parliament, said that all of Europe should be concerned about the murder of Marinova.
"First, Malta, then Slovakia, and now Bulgaria, it is unacceptable that in Europe journalists are again killed," he said, referring to the murders of two other investigative journalists. in these EU countries.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gives "special attention" to "a very disturbing increase" in violence against journalists, especially women journalists, the government spokesman said. Stéphane Dujarric. Guterres raised the issue with UK member states in public and privately, said Dujarric.
Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who investigated corruption in the local government, was killed in October 2017 by a car bomb. Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak was shot dead along with his fiancée in February after revealing corruption links between Slovak officials and Italian gangsters. Reports and the assassination of Kuciak led to the fall of the Slovak government.
In addition, Swedish journalist Kim Wall was tortured and murdered during a private underwater trip in August 2017. The inventor of the Danish submarine Peter Madsen was convicted and sentenced to prison at life earlier this year.
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Raf Casert in Brussels, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Teodora Barzakova in Sofia, Bulgaria, Edith Lederer in New York and Vadim Ghirda in Ruse, Bulgaria contributed.
