Bulgaria’s law enforcement authorities have asked for patience and calm as the investigation into the January 5 2010 murder of Bobbie Tsankov continues, with some of the main suspects still at large.
 
Tsankov, a radio show host who had written articles for a weekend publication and whose book on Bulgaria’s gangsters was published in November 2009, was buried at Sofia Central Cemetery on January 10, at a service attended by family and close friends.
 
Prosecutors have named Krassimir and Nikolai Marinov, known as the Big and Little Margin, respectively, as alleged to have commissioned Tsankov’s killing. Krassimir Margin is in custody but Nikolai is still a fugitive.
 
The day of Tsankov’s funeral, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov declined to comment on progress in the investigation until it was concluded, and asked for time and patience until this point was reached.
 
Interviewed on Bulgarian National Television on January 11, Lyudmil Rangelov, lawyer for the Marinovi, said that the brothers had no connection to the murder of Tsankov.
 
The past weekend saw continuing police operations in pursuit of other suspects in the case.
 
Police reportedly were seeking a man from Dolni Bogrov, outside Sofia, in operations in Blagoevgrad and Sandanski. Earlier, the man escaped arrest at a hotel in Petrich by jumping from a third-floor window, while two other men who had been with him were arrested.
 
On January 9, Bulgarian-language mass-circulation daily 24 Chassa quoted Sofia city prosecutor Nikolai Kokinov as saying that he had spoken on several occasions with Tsankov, and Tsankov had offered to provide information about people involved in organised crime.
 
Kokinov was quoted as suggesting that Tsankov probably wanted to be helpful because of several outstanding prosecutions against him. On January 8, it emerged that court records showed that Tsankov had 12 convictions for fraud, with another outstanding at the time of his death, for distribution of illegal software.
 
"We would neither accept him (Tsankov) without reserve nor reject him," Kokinov reportedly said.
 
The same day, daily Standart, quoting prosecutor Acksinia Matosian, said that Tsankov was scheduled to have given evidence on January 13 in a trial of Krassimir and Nikolai Marinov.
 
On that date, the trial of the brothers was set to resume, on charges of planning the murders of General Lyuben Gotsev, business person Nikola Damyanov and Ivan "The Doctor" Todorov.
 
Todorov was murdered in February 2007. Damyanov died a few months later, of a heart attack during the early stages of the trial of the Marinovi. Gotsev is a former interior minister and deputy foreign minister.