SOFIA: Bulgarian police are investigating the rape and slaying of a television reporter and presenter whose body was dumped near the Danube River.

Authorities discovered the body of 30-year-old Viktoria Marinova in the town of Ruse, northern Bulgaria, on Saturday. Police said she had been brutally beaten, raped and strangled. Her body was found in a park near the river.

Interior minister Mladen Marinov said on Monday there was no evidence to suggest the killing was linked to Marinova’s work. “It is about rape and murder,” he said.

The media freedom representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Harlem Desir, called for a “full and thorough investigation,” into Marinova’s death.

Marinova was a director of TVN, a small TV station in Ruse, and presenter of two investigative programmes.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2018