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EPA / TVN RUSE
Ms. Marinova is the third senior journalist assassinated in the EU this year
A man was arrested in Germany for raping and murdering Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova.
Bulgarian authorities said that a man named Severin Krasimirov had been arrested at their request.
The country's interior minister, Mladen Marinov, said the suspect was a good DNA for the evidence found at the scene of the crime.
Current evidence does not suggest that the attack was related to Ms. Marinova's work as a journalist, officials said.
She had recently hosted a television show in which two investigative journalists had discussed alleged fraud involving EU funds, prominent businessmen and politicians.
However, the chief prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov, said that the attack appeared to have been a spontaneous sexual assault, adding that all possibilities were still under study.
What do we know about the suspect?
Severin Krasimirov left Bulgaria for Germany on Sunday, the day after the rape and murder, reported the Bulgarian newspaper Chasa 168.
The suspect was charged in Bulgaria in his absence and a European arrest warrant was requested.
A man arrested on Tuesday in Bulgaria was released without charge.
The body of Viktoria Marinova was found Saturday in a park in the northern city of Ruse, near the Danube. She had been raped, beaten and suffocated.
His mobile phone, keys, glasses and clothes were missing, prosecutors said.
Who was Viktoria Marinova?
She was presenter of a news talk program called Detector on the TVN channel, and her latest broadcast was about allegations of corruption involving EU funds.
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AFP
Flowers and candles for Viktoria Marinova in the city of Rousse
The two investigative journalists on the show, Attila Biro and Dimitar Stoyanov, were themselves arrested in September when they were investigating the case, in a country ranked last among the member countries. of the European Union by the index of freedom of the press.
These details have given rise to numerous rumors that Ms. Marinova's death may have been linked to her work as a journalist.
She was the third senior journalist murdered in the European Union in the past year:
- In October 2017, Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb near her home.
- In February of this year, the Slovakian journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova were shot dead
On Monday, hundreds of people in mourning in Bulgaria organized vigils for Ms. Marinova.
