NYT: Bulgarian Journalist Murder First after New Govt Election*

The victim Bobi Tsankov was killed in central Sofia in broad daylight and two other men were wounded. Photo by BGNES

A prominent radio journalist and author of a book on Bulgaria’s gangsters was shot and killed Tuesday in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, the first such murder since a new government was elected last July promising to clamp down on organized crime and corruption.

The shooting adds to a lengthy list of apparent contract killings that have stained the country’s reputation since it achieved membership in the European Union in 2007, and it prompted the European Commission on Tuesday to urge the Bulgarian authorities to bring the killers to justice.

The victim, Bobi Tsankov, was killed in central Sofia in broad daylight, and two other men were wounded, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov and the Bulgarian police said.

Mark Gray, a spokesman for the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive body, said the commission’s “immediate thoughts are with the family of those affected by the shooting.”

But he also added: “Shootings continue to be a problem that needs to be urgently addressed in Bulgaria. Any shooting is unacceptable, and we hope that the Bulgarian authorities will bring those that have perpetrated this act to justice as quickly as possible.”

Despite Mr. Tsankov’s high-profile role in exposing the Bulgarian underworld, there was some uncertainty about the motive for the fatal attack on Mr. Tsankov.

Evgeniy Daynov, a Bulgarian political commentator, said Mr. Tsankov was not just a chronicler of the Bulgarian underworld but someone who enjoyed inhabiting it.

“He was a man who liked to go around Sofia in a giant S.U.V. surrounded by bodyguards and boasted about his gangster affiliations,” Mr. Daynov said. “It was part act and part reality. In a fragile democracy like Bulgaria, the gangsters are the rock stars and this is what Bobi tried to be.”

Mr. Daynov said the killing was a blow for Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, a center-right leader who has made his ability to fight organized crime a critical test of his government.

In 2008 there were more than 125 contract killings in Bulgaria, according to a list compiled by the United States Embassy there.

 

*The title of the article has been changed by the Editorial Staff of Novinite.com

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