SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarian authorities on Wednesday arrested and charged a man in his early 20s in the rape and killing of journalist Viktoria Marinova, a case that sent shock waves through Europe and triggered anxieties about press freedom around the world.
Authorities are now saying that the motive was probably sexual assault, not an attack on a journalist, although the investigation is ongoing.
The man was detained in Germany and has since been charged with rape and murder.
Marinova, 30, was attacked on Saturday as she was running in a park in Ruse, a small city in northeastern Bulgaria. Her professional identity as a host on TVN, a local television program, focused on investigative journalism and immediately stoked fears about retributions against journalists exposing corruption schemes, especially in Eastern Europe.
In the past year, two other investigative journalists were killed in European Union member states.
But early Wednesday, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Interior Minister Mladen Marinov told reporters that investigators had interviewed her family, colleagues and friends and found that “there is no apparent link to her work.”
[Bulgarian journalist was raped and killed in a case that has shocked Europe]
The man, whom authorities identified as Severin Krasimirov, from Ruse, was born in 1997 and had a criminal record that dated back to 2007, including charges of theft. According to Bulgarian officials, Krasimirov fled the scene and headed to Germany, where he was ultimately apprehended. Initial lab results linked his DNA to samples found at the crime scene, authorities said.
Bulgaria is the most corrupt member state in the E.U., according to global corruption watchdog Transparency International. It also ranks 111 out of 180 in terms of press freedom, the lowest in the E.U., according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a French organization devoted to the protection of journalists.
Marinova, a former lifestyle journalist, had recently transitioned into her role as the host of a program called “Detector,” focused on investigations. That program had featured one episode before her death, and it had broadcast interviews with other reporters who discussed their own investigations, stories that had already broken weeks before.
Authorities noted that Krasimirov lived near the crime scene. “We continue to work on all versions,” said Marinov, the interior minister.
Many local commentators were quick to point out that crimes against women are endemic in Bulgaria.
Earlier this year, the government refused to ratify the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe initiative aiming to battle and prevent violence against women, after Bulgaria’s constitutional court ruled that the convention contradicted the country’s constitution.
So far, the Istanbul Convention has been ratified by 33 European states.
“In this situation it’s necessary to analyze in depth the problems in Bulgaria connected to violence against women,” declared a statement from the Association of European Journalists — Bulgaria.
McAuley reported from Paris.
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