10 October 2018
Viktoria Marinova was a director of TVN, a small TV station in Ruse, and a TV presenter for two investigative programs. Police said she had been raped, beaten and strangled. Her body was found in a park near the river.
The Interior Ministry said late Monday that prosecutors had opened an investigation into GP Group, a large private Bulgarian building company alleged to have misused the EU money, and froze $16 million of its assets.
Marinova’s mobile phone, car keys, glasses and part of her clothing were missing when her body was found.
She had reported on the possible misuse of European Union funds in Bulgaria. Bulgarian Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said that there was no evidence to suggest the killing was linked to Marinova’s work. “It was just rape and murder,” he said. BBC News reported.
Daphne Caruana Galizia, Maltese journalist, who investigated local government corruption, was killed in October 2017 by a car bomb. Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak was shot dead along with his fiancée after he reported on corrupt ties between Slovak officials and Italian mobsters. Kuciak’s reporting brought down the Slovak government.
Swedish journalist Kim Wall was tortured and murdered during a private submarine trip in August 2017. Peter Madsen, a Danish submarine inventor, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison earlier this year. Cape Breton Post reported.
