Shooting in Sofia: former MEP Slavi Binev shot dead at home
Slavi Binev, a former Bulgarian MEP and European taekwondo champion, was shot dead at his home in Sofia on Saturday. Police detained three armed suspects on a motorway near the city.
Sixty-year-old politician and sports official dies day before presidential election
Slavi Binev, a former Bulgarian MEP and European taekwondo champion, was shot dead at his home in the Sofia district of Pavlovo on Saturday morning. According to Novinky.cz, citing the Associated Press, the sixty-year-old politician died before paramedics arrived at the scene, which occurred approximately seven minutes after the shooting was reported around 10:30 local time.
According to Bulgarian news agency Novinite, several people entered the house with whom Binev became involved in a dispute. A worker present on the property heard gunshots and subsequently found the businessman dead.
Police managed to detain three suspected men on a motorway near Sofia. Senior police official Ljubomir Nikolov stated that two of those detained hold Turkish citizenship, whilst the third presented a Bulgarian identity card. All were armed.
Binev was born in 1965 in Sofia. In 1992, he won the title of European taekwondo champion at the championship in Celje, Slovenia. After the end of his sporting career, he pursued business, politics and sports diplomacy — serving as president of the Bulgarian Taekwondo Federation and first vice-president of the European Taekwondo Union.
He entered politics with the nationalist party Ataka, for which he was elected to the European Parliament in 2007. He defended his mandate two years later and subsequently also sat in the Bulgarian parliament, having switched between several political groupings.
In the 1990s he engaged in business activities including security services and operated nightclubs in Sofia. Bulgarian media previously linked his activities at that time to organised crime groups that emerged during the country's post-communist transition.
The Bulgarian Taekwondo Federation responded to Binev's death, stating: "Today we have lost our president, leader, teacher and above all friend Slavi Binev."
Police have not officially confirmed any connection between the murder and the presidential election, which took place in Bulgaria one day after the incident. The motive for the attack remains unclear.
Source: Novinky.cz