Germany arrests man for Bulgarian journalist's murder

Police in Germany have arrested a man in connection with the rape and brutal murder of Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova, Bulgarian officials said on Wednesday.

The man was picked up late on Tuesday at the request of Bulgarian authorities, Bulgaria's Interior Minister Mladen Marinov told a news conference.

The country's chief prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov, said "at this stage, we do not believe that the murder is linked" to Marinova's work as a journalist.

Bulgarian authorities filed the charges against the man and were expecting Germany to transfer him to their territory, the minister added.

Country shocked

The brutal murder of 30-year-old Viktoria Marinova -- who presented a current affairs talk programme called "Detector" for the small TVN television channel -- has shocked the country and drawn international condemnation.

Marinova's body was discovered on a riverside path in Ruse on Saturday. 

Authorities have said she died from blows to the head and suffocation. She was also raped.

Marinova is the third journalist to be murdered in Europe in the past 12 months after Jan Kuciak in Slovakia in February and Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in October 2017.

Local people held a candlelight vigil October 8 and many left flowers to commemorate Marinova, who left a seven-year-old daughter.

Relatives and colleagues called on people to be patient and expressed hope that the police would soon find the perpetrators.