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Turkey’s finance tsar has declared war on soaring inflation and called on the country’s businesses to cut prices. 

Finance minister Berat Albayrak Tuesday called on business to cut prices by 10 percent to counter runaway inflation. The Turkish lira has fallen some 40 percent this year, driving up the price of everything from food to fuel and sending inflation to 25 percent last month, its highest in 15 years. 

Analysts warn that this radical strategy could hurt an economy that is already struggling. 

“It’s unusual to announce an anti-inflationary package without a reference to monetary policy,” said senior economist Inan Demir of Nomura International.

Most nations use monetary policy to fight inflation by raising interest rates to cut domestic demand and strengthen the local currency.

“I would say there is a reason, economic theory, and past experience favor monetary policy because measures to control prices have serious side effects,” Demir said.

Since the failed coup in 2016, numerous companies have been seized by Turkish authorities after being accused of conspiring against the government.

‘War on inflation’

In launching his “war on inflation,” the finance minister attacked unnamed companies for “speculation, opportunism and stockpiling.” Police have raided businesses, accused of speculation and shops and supermarkets are now being checked for “price gouging.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is weighing in, calling on consumers to report shops and businesses for excessive price hikes.

Political analyst, Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners, warns the government’s efforts to curtail inflation are more likely to hurt the economy than help it.

“Some people are obviously trying to benefit from the currency turmoil, but a lot of people simply have no idea how to price and cost things. This is why they are simply raising prices by as much as the exchange rate,” Yesilada said. “By trying to stop this kind of behavior, the government is simply making things worse because if people can’t price appropriately, they will stop producing or selling. I understand in some grocery stores, pharmacies and supermarkets there is a shortage of some essential goods.”

International investors 

Last month, the Turkish central bank won back some much need credibility by the international investment community by hiking interest rates by over 6 percent in a move to rein in inflation and defend the currency.

Analysts interpreted the rate hike as an essential step toward returning to economic stability and re-establishing the central bank’s independence.

A key factor cited by international investors for the weakness in the Turkish lira was Erdogan’s hostility toward interest rises and his apparent control over the central bank.

Analysts say the latest measure will likely unnerve investors again. However the Turkish lira only suffered a minimal fall following the controversial policy announcement.

“The most important agenda item for investors is the Pastor Brunson case, and any other news is overshadowed by the hearing Friday, which explains the short-lived sell-off,” said economist Demir.

An American citizen, Pastor Andrew Brunson, is on trial accused of terrorism in Turkey, charges Washington insist are baseless. U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade sanctions imposed on Turkey in August was, in part, retaliation for Ankara’s refusal to release Brunson. The sanctions resulted in the lira falling.

Brunson trial resumes

On Friday, Brunson’s trial resumes with growing expectation that he will be allowed to return to the United States. Such a move would lift the threat of further US sanctions. However, analysts warn about what will happen if Brunson is not released.

“If Brunson is not released, the markets will start to price in further sanctions by the U.S. And, as long as we don’t have much clarity on the U.S. sanctions, the market’s inclination will be to price in the more adverse scenario,” said analyst Demir.
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U.N. human rights experts are calling for a prompt independent and international investigation into the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi.  He was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, October 2.

Members of the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances say they are deeply concerned over the vanishing of Kashoggi as well as over allegations of his state-sponsored murder.

They say they are disturbed the disappearance of the Saudi journalist may be directly linked to his criticism of his government’s policies in recent years.  They are demanding an immediate international probe into the events surrounding his case.  

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani agrees the apparent enforced disappearance of Khashoggi from the Saudi consulate is of serious concern.

“If reports of his death and the extraordinary circumstances leading up to it are confirmed, this is truly shocking.  We call for cooperation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia to conduct a prompt, impartial and independent investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance and to make the findings public,” Shamdasani said.  

Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate more than one week ago to get divorce papers so he could marry his Turkish fiancée.  He has not been seen since.  The journalist, a critic of the Saudi monarchy, has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States for more than a year.

His disappearance has unleashed an international firestorm and warnings of serious diplomatic repercussions if the matter is not resolved.  U.S. President Donald Trump, who has a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed, says he does not like the “bad stories” about this situation.

Turkish media reports allege Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate and his body dismembered.  Crown Prince Mohammed calls the reports about Khashoggi’s disappearance or death completely false and baseless.

U.N. human rights experts say an international probe is needed to learn the truth.  They say the perpetrators and masterminds of this alleged crime should be identified and brought to justice.

 
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The White House said Wednesday that top Trump administration officials have spoken to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the mysterious disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whom Turkish officials say they believe was murdered last week inside Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul.

National security adviser John Bolton and senior adviser Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, talked with Salman Tuesday, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a follow-up call with the Saudi leader to reiterate the U.S. demand for information about the case, the White House said.

“In both calls they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process,” the White House said.

Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the U.S. is continuing to monitor the unfolding investigation in Istanbul, but offered no information what the crown prince told the U.S. officials about Khashoggi’s disappearance.

Trump told reporters he had talked with officials in Saudi Arabia “at the highest level” about Khashoggi’s disappearance, but offered no indication on his whereabouts.

“It’s a very sad situation, this is a bad situation,” Trump said. “It’s a terrible thing.”

“Nobody knows what happened,” Trump said, adding, “We want to get to the bottom of it. We cannot let this happen, to reporters, to anyone.”

Trump declined to say whom he talked with in the Saudi government. He said his aides have been in contact with Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and hope to set up a meeting with her at the White House.

Turkish officials say they believe Khashoggi, a critic of Salman who has been living in self-imposed exile in the U.S., was murdered October 2 inside the consulate when he went there to pick up documents to allow him to marry Cengiz, a Turkish national, or perhaps spirited away to Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia has called the allegation “baseless,” but has offered no proof that Khashoggi left the consulate alive, nor has Turkey produced evidence that he was killed inside the diplomatic outpost.

Asked whether Washington might dispatch FBI technicians if Saudi Arabia requested it, Vice President Mike Pence said, “I think the United States of America stands ready to assist in any way.”

Pence did not indicate that either Turkey, which has launched an intensive investigation into Khashoggi’s disappearance, or Saudi Arabia has sought U.S. assistance.

He told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt that Khashoggi’s disappearance is “a great concern for the United States of America. The suggestion that this journalist, Mr. Khashoggi, was you know, was murdered should be deeply troubling to everyone that cares as a free and open press around the world…. The free world deserves answers. Violence against journalists should be condemned, but at this point, we don’t know what happened.”

A key U.S. lawmaker, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, told VOA the unfolding drama could significantly affect U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, long an American ally in the Middle East.

“If it turns out that suspicions of Saudi involvement in the murder of this journalist are true,” Kaine said, “it could be a real sea-change in the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that could affect many things, including U.S. support for what Saudi Arabia is doing in Yemen. So I think we have to get to the bottom of it.”

Turkey has focused much of its investigation on 15 Saudi nationals who arrived in Istanbul on two flights the same day as Khashoggi was at the consulate.

Khashoggi has written articles in The Washington Post that were critical of the Saudi regime and its intervention in the war in Yemen. Cengiz, his fiancee, wrote in the newspaper Tuesday that Khashoggi had been “somewhat concerned that he could be in danger” when he first visited the consulate September 28, but after that visit was uneventful, seemed unconcerned when he returned last week to pick up the documents they needed to get married.

She called on Trump to “help shed light” on the journalist’s disappearance. She also urged Saudi Arabia’s leaders to release security camera video from the consulate area.

Turkish media Wednesday showed what it said was a team of the 15 Saudis arriving at the Istanbul airport on the same day Khashoggi went missing. The Sabah newspaper, which is close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published names and pictures of the Saudi nationals, apparently taken at a passport control station.

Later, eight of the men checked into the Movenpick hotel near the consulate, with seven others checking into a different nearby hotel, the Wyndham. Nearly two hours after Khashoggi entered the consulate, video shows two vehicles with diplomatic plates leaving the consulate through police barricades and headed to the Saudi consul general’s residence. The 15 Saudis left Turkey at four different times, the Sabah report said.

Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan issued the newspaper’s latest plea for information Tuesday, saying neither Saudi Arabia nor Turkey has provided satisfactory answers.

“Silence, denials and delays are not acceptable.  We demand to know the truth,” Ryan said in a statement.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday authorities would search the Saudi consulate, but there have been no details about when such a search would take place.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi officials need to prove that Khashoggi left the building.

“We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible.  The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying, ‘He has left,'” Erdogan said earlier in the week.

Crown Prince Salman said last week that Riyadh was “ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises,” because it had “nothing to hide” about the missing journalist.

Michael Bowman contributed to this report.
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The founder of the British investigative group Bellingcat says Russian President Vladimir Putin lied when he said he had never met either of the two suspects in the novichok poisoning attack in England. Two Russian agents are believed to have traveled to Salisbury in March under assumed names in an attempt to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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The fiancee of a Saudi journalist who disappeared after entering the country’s consulate in Istanbul last week said he had been “somewhat concerned that he could be in danger,” but that he did not fear anything would happen to him at the diplomatic outpost.

Hatice Cengiz wrote in the Washington Post that her fiance, Jamal Khashoggi, first went to the consulate on September 28 and returned last week for an appointment to pick up paperwork the couple needed to get married. He has not been seen since.

Cengiz expressed confidence in the ability of Turkish authorities to figure our what happened to Khashoggi, and further called on U.S. President Donald Trump to “help shed light” on the journalist’s disappearance. She also urged Saudi Arabia’s leaders to release security camera video from the consulate area.

Saudi Arabia has said Khashoggi left the consulate and rejected accusations from Turkish officials who said he was murdered there. Neither side has shown any proof to support its version of what happened.

Khashoggi has been critical of the Salman government, including in a number of Washington Post columns about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and has been living for a year in self-imposed exile in the United States after a Riyadh crackdown on dissent in the kingdom.

Washington Post Publisher Fred Ryan issued the newspaper’s latest plea for information Tuesday, saying neither Saudi Arabia nor Turkey has provided satisfactory answers.

“Silence, denials and delays are not acceptable. We demand to know the truth,” Ryan said in a statement.

The pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah said Wednesday it identified a group of 15 Saudis who allegedly traveled to Istanbul the day Khashoggi went missing, then left Turkey later that day.

Turkish police have been looking into two private aircraft that were believed to be carrying the group when they landed at the Istanbul airport on October 2. Sabah reported that both planes returned to Riyadh, with one stopping first in Dubai and the other in Egypt. The planes belonged to a Saudi company with links to the government.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday authorities would search the Saudi consulate, but there have been no details about when such a search would take place.

WATCH: US response to Khashoggi’s case

​U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House he plans to talk to the Saudis about the case, but had no information about Khashoggi’s fate. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saudi officials need to prove that Khashoggi left the building.

“We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying, ‘He has left,'” Erdogan said Monday on a visit to Budapest.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last week that Riyadh was “ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises,” because it had “nothing to hide” about the missing journalist.
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Bulgarian officials said Wednesday authorities have arrested a suspect in the rape and murder of journalist Viktoria Marinova.

Chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov identified the suspect as Severin Krasimirov, a Bulgarian citizen who was taken into custody in Germany.

Tsatsarov told reporters that so far investigators do not believe Marinova’s rape and killing was linked to her work, but rather was a spontaneous attack.

Krasimirov has been charged with rape and premeditated murder.

Marinova had investigated alleged corruption involving politicians and European Union funds. Her body was found Saturday in a park in the northern city of Ruse.
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The two main Catalan secessionist parties on Tuesday voted against each other in the regional parliament for the first time in three years, a sign that tensions over the strategy to adopt toward Spain’s central government are becoming more serious.

Quim Torra, the Catalan regional head and Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) member, last week threatened to withdraw parliamentary support for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in the national parliament, but coalition ally Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC, Republican Left of Catalonia) did not back the move.

ERC leader Oriol Junqueras, who is currently in jail for his alleged role in organizing an illegal referendum on independence for the Catalonia region last year, said establishing a good relationship with the Spanish state and finding “dialogue and agreements” was the best way to resolve the secession crisis.

While the two parties had so far managed to resolve their tensions internally, they openly split on Tuesday when ERC teamed up with the socialist party to defeat a proposal of JxCat to allow exiled and jailed representatives to vote in the regional parliament.

Junqueras and another jailed ERC member, Raul Romeva, had previously agreed to transfer their votes to a member of their party, in line with a ruling from Spain’s Supreme Court.

It is not yet clear whether those cracks could spell the end of the three-year-old pro-independence coalition, which controls the regional assembly and helped Sanchez win a confidence vote and topple conservative predecessor Mariano Rajoy in June.

Junqueras on Twitter on Tuesday urged the two parties to stick together while JxCat said it would hold an extraordinary meeting on Friday to review its strategy.

Polls in Catalonia show a relatively even split between those who favor remaining in Spain and those wanting to secede.

Sanchez has said he favors dialogue on the region’s future but has ruled out any moves toward independence.
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European Union nations, voicing worries over a U.N. report on global warming, were haggling on Tuesday over how ambitious to be in cutting vehicle emissions, with Germany warning that overly-challenging targets risked harming industry and jobs.

Torn between reducing pollution and preserving industry competitiveness, EU environment ministers meeting in Luxembourg are seeking a compromise over what 2030 carbon dioxide limits to impose on Europe’s powerful carmakers.

In a joint statement, they said the bloc was “deeply concerned” over a U.N. report calling for rapid and unprecedented action to contain global warming, but held back from increasing their pledge to reduce emissions under the 2015 Paris climate accord.

Several ministers sought a higher, 40 percent reduction in vehicle emissions, in line with targets backed by EU lawmakers last week. “Everyone is calling for action after the report,” French Environment Minister Francois de Rugy said.

But two EU sources said some nations appeared to be siding with a less ambitious reduction.

Germany, with its big auto sector, backs an EU executive proposal for a 30 percent cut for fleets of new cars and vans by 2030, compared with 2021 levels.

“After the (U.N.) report yesterday that is not easy, but it is a position we all agreed on,” Germany’s Svenja Schulze said.

Too close to call

Climate campaigners say Germany has still not learned to be tougher on the auto industry, despite the scandal that engulfed Volkswagen in 2015 when it admitted to using illegal software to mask emissions on up to 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide.

EU sources said Germany, with the backing of eastern European nations, might have enough votes to secure a majority at the meeting among the bloc’s 28 nations.

Austria, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, has proposed a compromise 35 percent reduction in emissions.

“It’s too close to call,” said Greg Archer, an expert with Brussels-based campaign group Transport & Environment.

If they reach an agreement, talks on the final law could begin with the EU’s two other lawmaking bodies.

The new rules will also create a crediting system that will allow carmakers to lower their CO2 targets by meeting a benchmark for selling zero- and low-emission vehicles as a share of their total new car sales.

Climate ambition

Curbs on the transport sector, the only industry in which emissions are still rising, aim to help the bloc meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gases by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

Extreme temperatures across the northern hemisphere this summer have fuelled concerns climate change is gathering pace, leading some countries to call for emissions to be cut at a faster rate than planned.

But a call by the EU’s climate commissioner and 15 EU nations for the bloc to increase its pledge to cut emissions by 45 percent under the Paris accord has met with resistance.

Ahead of U.N. climate talks in Poland in December, the bloc’s 28 environment ministers renewed their commitment to leading the fight to limiting global warming.

They said the EU was ready to “communicate or update” its Nationally Determined Contribution, the efforts by each country to reduce emissions, by 2020.

Raising it would require the approval of all 28 nations.

That may be too hard to achieve before the U.N. talks, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said, but the bloc is likely to exceed its Paris pledge following a reform of its Emission Trading System (ETS) and new targets on renewable energy and energy efficiency.

“We do not need new legislation on this one because everything is already done. We are just going to get better results than expected,” Sefcovic told Reuters on Monday. (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Additional reporting by Peter Maushagen and Alissa de Carbonnel in Brussels; Editing by Edmund Blair and Mark Potter)

 
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FIFA announced a new global strategy for women’s football on Tuesday in an effort to create revenue streams and increase grassroots participation.

FIFA said in a statement that it would work closely with member associations through workshops and special initiatives to “encourage female empowerment” through football.

“The women’s game is a top priority,” FIFA’s secretary general Fatma Samoura said. “We will work hand-in-hand with our 211 member associations around the world to increase grassroots participation, enhance the commercial value of the women’s game and strengthen the structures surrounding women’s football to ensure that everything we do is sustainable and has strong results.”

FIFA said it would look to double the number of female players to 60 million by 2026 and ensure all member associations have developed “comprehensive women’s football strategies” by 2022.

The sport’s governing body also hopes to broaden female representation in their regulatory framework, with at least one third of FIFA committee members to be women by 2022.
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Russia has carried out cyber attacks on Latvia’s foreign and defense apparatus and other state institutions, a Latvian intelligence agency said on Monday.

Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) has tried to access information by e-mail phishing attacks against government computers in “recent years”, Latvia’s Constitution Protection Bureau said.

“The cyber attacks in Latvia were carried out by the GRU for espionage purposes, and the most frequent attacks were directed against state institutions, including the foreign and defense sectors,” it said in a statement.

No attacks directed at influencing last weekend’s parliamentary elections were detected, it said.

Several Western countries issued coordinated denunciations of Russia last week for running what they described as a global hacking campaign, targeting institutions from sports anti-doping bodies to a nuclear power company and the chemical weapons watchdog.
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A Serb nationalist who opposes Bosnia as a state won a share of its tripartite presidency, election results showed on Monday, as Serb, Croat and Muslim ethnic parties dominated their regions in voting likely to slow the country’s march toward EU integration.

The largest parties from Bosnia’s Serb, Muslim and Croat communities, which have been in power most of the time since its 1992-95 war ended, mostly entrenched their domination of all layers of Bosnia’s complex government.

Since the war, which killed 100,000 people, Bosnia has been divided between a Serb Republic and a federation of Croat and Muslim cantons, with a presidency formed of one member from each of the three main groups.

The solid grip of ethnic parties has frustrated efforts to reform the economy and win Bosnia admission to Western organizations such as the European Union and NATO. 

“Yesterday’s election, much like previous elections in Bosnia, will serve to perpetuate the political deadlock and make the country’s EU and NATO accession difficult,” said Marko Attila Hoare, political analyst and Balkan historian.

The SNSD party of pro-Russian Serb nationalist Milorad Dodik was on course to be the strongest single party in Bosnia, and, along with coalition partners, set to dominate both the Serb caucus in the national parliament and the parliament of the autonomous Serb Republic.

Dodik, who campaigned on the secession of the Serb Republic and integration with Serbia, also won the Serb seat in the tripartite presidency of a country he has repeatedly denounced as an “impossible state.” His ally Zeljka Cvijanovic was elected to take over Dodik’s former job as president of the Serb region.

The largest Muslim Bosniak party SDA secured the most votes in Bosnia’s autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation and its Bosniak Muslim-dominated cantons. Its candidate Sefik Dzaferovic won the Bosniak seat in the inter-ethnic presidency.

A coalition led by the largest Croat party HDZ won the most votes of Croats in the Federation parliament and in the majority Croat cantons. However, its leader Dragan Covic lost the seat in the presidency to Zeljko Komsic, seen as a more moderate figure, who Covic said won the vote thanks to votes of Bosniaks.

“It is not good that one people choose a representative of the other people,” Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in Zagreb.

Hoare said the election meant “things will get worse before they get better, as the Republika Srpska, where Dodik has won another victory, may eventually make a bid for independence — possibly with Russian backing.”

Institutional crisis looming?

More than two decades after the war, the leading Serb, Croat and Muslim Bosniak parties campaigned on nationalist tickets, reviving wartime pledges while failing to offer clearly defined economic or political visions.

International election monitors said the vote was generally orderly despite some reported violations.

But Mavroudis Voridis, the special coordinator of an observer mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said formation of institutions was uncertain due to a failure of the Bosniak and Croat parties to agree on changes to the election law before the vote.

“We expect all political leaders to engage in the formation of the governments at all levels, by working constructively together,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said in a joint statement.

Dodik said on Monday his party would clinch a partnership with the HDZ in the Council of Ministers, which is the de facto national government, and in the national parliament.

“Bosnia is heading towards the institutional crisis when it comes to the presidency,” said Alida Vracic, the executive director of the Populari think tank, referring to the possible disagreement between Dodik and moderate Komsic.

But deals will be easier to make at other government levels where the three nationalist parties have ruled together over the years, Vracic added.
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A human rights campaigner who has been jailed since January in the Russian province of Chechnya has been awarded a prestigious human rights prize by the Council of Europe.

The Council’s Parliamentary Assembly on Monday awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize to Oyub Titiev, who heads the Chechnya branch of Russian human rights center Memorial.

The chairman of Memorial’s board accepted the award on Titiev’s behalf.

Amnesty International called Titiev “one of Russia’s most courageous human rights defenders” for his work leading Memorial’s office in Chechnya’s capital for more than nine years. His predecessor, Natalia Estemirova, was kidnapped and killed in 2009.

Titiev is the prize’s sixth recipient. In 2016, it went to Yazidi women’s advocate Nadia Murad, a co-winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
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Pro-Russia Serb leader Milorad Dodik declared victory Sunday in the race to fill the Serb seat in Bosnia’s three-member presidency, deepening ethnic divisions in the country that faced a brutal war some 25 years ago.

Dodik said he was projected to win 56 percent of the vote in the election and his main opponent, Mladen Ivanic, 44 percent. The projection was made with 85 percent of ballots counted, he said.

“The people have decided,” Dodik said.

Preliminary official results are expected Monday. After polls closed, Dodik and Ivanic both said they were in the lead.

The presidency also has a Muslim and a Croat member. Dodik advocates eventual separation of Serbs from Bosnia. His election deals a blow to efforts to strengthen the country’s unity after the 1992-95 war.

The ballot was seen as a test of whether Bosnia will move toward integration in the European Union and NATO or remain entrenched in rivalries stemming from the 1992-95 war.

More than half of Bosnia’s 3.3 million eligible voters cast ballots, election officials said. Voters chose an array of institutions in Bosnia’s complex governing system, which was created by a 1995 peace accord that ended the war that killed 100,000 people and left millions homeless.

Election officials described the voting that took place as “extremely fair” despite several incidents.

The country consists of two regional mini-states — one Serb-run and a Muslim-Croat entity — with joint institutions in a central government. Along with the Bosnian presidency, voters were electing the Serb president and the two entities’ parliaments and cantonal authorities.

The campaign was marred by divisive rhetoric and allegations of irregularities that fueled tensions.

 
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The body of a popular Bulgarian TV journalist investigating alleged corruption involving politicians and EU funds was found over the weekend, police said.

Prosecutors said the body of 30-year-old Viktoria Marinova was found Saturday in a park in the northern city of Ruse. Her mobile phone, car keys, glasses and some of her clothes were missing.

Police say she was raped before she was killed.

“Her death was caused by blows to the head and suffocation,” Ruse prosecutor Georgy Georgiev said, adding that investigators were able to obtain a lot of DNA evidence.

Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said there have been no signs linking Marinova’s death to her work as a TV investigative journalist.

Another reporter from Marinova’s television station also said no one at the station had been threatened.

But the owner of a website involved in the investigation of the alleged corruption, and whose own journalists were interviewed by Marinova, said his group had gotten credible information that there would be trouble.

“Viktoria’s death, the brutal manner in which she was killed, is an execution. It was meant to serve as an example, something like a warning,” Asen Yordanov told the French News Agency Sunday.

Marinova worked for the Ruse-based television station TVN and hosted a talk show Detector.

The Reporters Without Borders global index of press freedom rated Bulgaria 111 out of 180 countries in 2018 — the lowest of any EU member.
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