Bulgarian police arrest for the rape and murder of journalist Viktoria Marinova during an investigation into the misuse of European funds

RUSE, Bulgaria – Bulgarian national radio reported on Tuesday that a suspect had been arrested in connection with the rape and murder of television journalist Viktoria Marinova, whose body had been found while she had been scrapped after highlighting a possible corruption of the government. Tuesday's report said that according to unconfirmed information from the Ministry of the Interior, the suspect is "a Romanian citizen holding a passport to Moldova". No other information was immediately available.

Police are investigating the rape and murder of Marinova, 30, whose strangled body was found Saturday near the Danube. Last month, Marinova hosted a program featuring two investigative journalists arrested for their work on alleged fraud involving European funds.

The Interior Ministry announced last Monday that prosecutors had opened an investigation into GP Group, a large Bulgarian private construction company that allegedly misused EU money, and froze 14 millions of euros of its assets.

Although Marinova does not seem to have been closely associated with the fraud investigation, her broadcast touched on a sensitive topic in Bulgaria, where corruption is endemic. The Balkan nation joined the EU in 2007 and ranked 71st on the Transparency International corruption list last year. Membership in the bloc has opened up huge potential for European funding for Bulgarian infrastructure projects or other programs aimed at bringing the country up to EU standards.

Groups of journalists and European leaders have expressed their shock at the murder of Marinova. 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." ".

Bulgarian Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said on Monday that there was no evidence to suggest that the murder was related to Marinova's work.

Marinova was a director of TVN, a television channel in Ruse, and a television presenter for two investigative programs.

His last show on September 30th was a show about Attila Biro, an investigative reporter for the Rise Project Romania, 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.

Biro told AP that he had never met Marinova – he said that one of his colleagues had interviewed him with Stoyanov about their work.

"They are on the right track, but let's see how the investigation goes," he said.