Bulgarian News Network - Monday - 31.October.2016
- Bulgarian News Network (BNN) - Breaking News in the 21st Century.
01:11 - Monday.31.10.2016 BULGARIA \ Politics \ Crime
- Lyuben Slavkov - MP for Ataka Politicheska Partiya is dead!
- A few minutes after midnight, Sofia time, police received a emergency call from a cell phone belonging to Krasimir Asenov, a professional body-guard contracted to protect Lyuben Slavkov, one of two ministers of parliament for the highly criticized right-wing political party 'Attack.'
- Police traced the call to Vartopo Bridge, a covered bridge that services both the Sofia Metro and automobile traffic at the northern edge of the Sofia quarter of Darvenitsa. Darvenitsa is a former village that has become a suburban neighborhood of Sofia and lies between the quarters Studentskigrad and Mladost 1.
- When police arrived, they found a bloody massacre. Lyuben Slavkov's Great Wall Voleex C10 stalled in the middle of the bridge, blocking the automotive lanes and perforated by several hundred amour-piercing rounds. Lyuben Slavkov was pronounced dead on the scene by emergency medical personnel, as was his wife Magdalena, and his two body-guards Krasimir Asenov and Penko Nikolov.
- The only witness and the first upon the scene was Neofit Aleksandrov, a late night stock attendant at a nearby hypermarket. Neofit reported to the police that he came upon the scene a few minutes after midnight and immediately called police and emergency services, but the covered nature of the bridge foiled the signal and then he immediately tried to resuscitate the then sole survivor Krasimir Asenov.
- According to Krasimir, Lyuben Slavkov and his wife were returning to their home outside the city, after an evening of dinner and dancing. As their vehicle entered the covered bridge, a single motorcycle overtook the car at high speed and suddenly stopped in the middle of the bridge and opened fire on their car. Apparently, Penko Nikolov was driving and was almost immediately killed. Probably the second to die was Lyuben's wife Magdalena who was in the front passenger seat. Both Slavkov and Asenov were mortally wounded in the attack which Asenov described as a minute long onslaught of continuous machine-gun fire.
- For those unfamiliar with the charismatic MP - Lyuben Slavkov of Ataka Partiya. Slavkov was a fiery orator of Bulgarian nationalism and a marked critic of the recent liberal trend in Bulgarian politics. In general, Ataka Partiya is antagonistic towards Bulgarian minorities like Muslims, Roma and Jews. Lyuben Slavkov was particularly vocal about the Roma as a parasitic society that drain social and financial resources better spent on the Bulgarian working class. He had recently introduced a bill into the lower house of parliament for the redistricting of western Sofia in such a way as to exclude Fakulteta from the metropolitan capital.
- The Sofia Police Department is offering a 1000 Lev reward for any information leading to the arrest of the assailant in this multiple homicide. Please dial the short code #166 to speak to a police officer about information related to this crime.
- The author of this article, Sergei Apostolov, is a graduate of the New Bulgarian University, where he received a degree in Journalism and has worked for the BNN as an investigative reporter for three years.