Journalist brutally murdered in Bulgaria

Victoria Marinova, a 30-year-old Bulgarian journalist, was murdered in the town of Ruse, Buglaria on Saturday.

Her body was recovered from the Danube river bank on Saturday, police said.

According to the media reports, Marinova was raped, beaten and strangled. She was found by a passer-by but only identified as Marinova by the police on Sunday. 

It is unclear whether Marinova’s murder was related to her professional work but police sources who spoke to AFP said that the murder did not appear to be linked to her work.

The head of Ruse’s prosecution office Georgi Georgiev however told a press conference on Sunday that nothing could be excluded at this stage.

The OSCE's media freedom representative Harlem Desir condemned Marinova's killing on Twitter: "Shocked by horrific murder of investigative journalist Victoria Marinova in #Bulgaria. Urgently call for a full and thorough investigation. Those responsible must be held to account."

The murder was similarly condemned by the European and International Federation of Journalists, both of which said they were deeply shocked by the murder. They called on Bulgarian authorities to identify, arrest and prosecute those responsible for Marinova’s killing.

Marinova is the third journalist killed in the EU in less than a year, after Daphne Caruana Galizia from Malta and Jan Kuciak from Slovakia.