Seven journalists killed in Europe since the start of 2017

Seven journalists killed in Europe since the start of 2017
By Emma BeswickRafael Cereceda
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Seven journalists — many of them investigating corruption — have now been killed in Europe over the last two years.

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Seven journalists — many of them investigating corruption — have now been killed in Europe over the last two years.

Bulgarian reporter Viktoria Marinova became the latest to be murdered in October 2018, a year on from the most high-profile killings.

The brutal "Mafia-style" murder of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia shocked the continent.

She had been probing numerous cases of corruption on the Mediterranean island before a powerful bomb blew her car up near her home.

Slovakia-based investigative journalist Ján Kuciak was murdered in February 2018 and the subsequent national outcry helped topple the government.

Here are the seven journalists killed since the beginning of 2017.

Ján Kuciak

Ján Kuciak was 27 years old and reported on corruption and tax evasion. He and his girlfriend were shot dead at his home in Velka Maca, near Bratislava, on February 25, 2018.

Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia was 53 years old when she died. She reported on corruption and money laundering in Malta and published numerous articles based on the Panama Papers.

She was killed using a remote-controlled car bomb outside her home in Bidnija, Malta, on October 16, 2017. Maltese police arrested about 10 people in connection with the case.

Three suspects, Vince Muscat along with brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, were charged with the journalist’s murder last December in a complicated trial which saw two judges withdraw from the case. All three pleaded not guilty.

Kim Wall

The murder of Kim Wall, 30 years old, was far from a Mafia-related case—the Swedish journalist died while working but not for political reasons.

She disappeared on August 10, 2017, while making a report on a prototype civil submarine created by the Danish native Peter Madsen.

Her body was found in the sea, mutilated, almost 12 days later. Madsen has been formally charged with Wall's murder and expected to be sentenced in April.

Dmitri Popkov

Courtesy: Yulia Mullabayeva/Ton-M

Dmitri Popkov was 42 years old when he was killed. He published articles about corruption and abuse of power in Russia in his newspaper Ton-M. He also criticised officials in the ruling United Russia party.

On May 24, 2017, he was shot five times and his body was found in his garden in Minusinsk, Siberia. Authorities have opened an investigation into his death that has, as yet, proved fruitless.

Saeed Karimian

Saeed Karimain (Facebook Gem Group)

Saeed Karimian, a 45-year-old Iranian television executive, was killed on April 19, 2017, in Istanbul by several hooded men who shot him with his partner, a native of Kuwait.

His GEM TV network was dedicated to translating Western television programmes into Farsi.

Karimian was condemned in absentia in Tehran for "spreading propaganda against Iran". The Turkish police are conducting an ongoing investigation into the pair's death.

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Nikolay Andrushchenko

Courtesy: Denis Usov/Novy Peterburg

Nicolai Andrushchenko died on April 19, 2017 in Russia, at the age of 73, six weeks after he was brutally beaten unconscious by a group of strangers.

St Petersburg police investigated his death but his attackers were never identified.

Andrushchenko was one of the founders of the newspaper Novy Petersburg and specialised in local news, crime and human rights.

Viktoria Marinova

Viktoria Marinova

Prosecutors said 30-year-old journalist Viktoria Marinova had been raped, beaten and then suffocated before being found in Bulgaria.

Authorities said there was no evidence linking the murder to her work. But, on her last aired TV show as an anchor, on September 30, Marinova introduced two journalists who were investigating alleged corruption involving EU funds.

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