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Bulgarian crime reporter assassinated

Other News Materials 5 January 2010 17:35 (UTC +04:00)
A prominent Bulgarian journalist who investigated the country's powerful organized crime world was assassinated on Tuesday in Sofia, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said.
Bulgarian crime reporter assassinated

A prominent Bulgarian journalist who investigated the country's powerful organized crime world was assassinated on Tuesday in Sofia, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said, DPA reported.

Bobi Tsankov, 30, a radio moderator and author of several books on the underworld, was fatally shot in centre of the capital by two unidentified gunmen, Tsvetanov said. His two bodyguards were wounded and hospitalized, the Novinite.com news portal said.

Some media reports have alleged that Tsankov had links to organized crime. He is the second author writing about the Bulgarian underworld to die recently in an apparent professional killing.

The previous victim, Georgi Stoev, had been planning to publish a book with detailed descriptions of the workings of the Bulgarian organized crime but was shot and killed in April 2008.

Bulgaria has been plagued by gangland-style killings, which have claimed dozens of lives in recent years. Victims include business people and police.

Few of the killings have resulted in trials, and even fewer in convictions.

The European Union has repeatedly criticized Bulgaria, a member since 2007, over its corrupt, inefficient justice system.

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