SOFIA, Bulgaria, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- A Bulgarian newspaper is reporting that a Serbian assassin is believed to be behind the murder of underworld boss Georgi Iliev.
Trud cited police officials speaking on condition of anonymity as their source of information.
Three of the 30 witnesses to Iliev's murder on Thursday reported seeing a suspicious man running to the entrance of one of two hotels near the place where Iliev was killed. Police forensic experts have revealed that the assassin sniper was on the roof of one of the two hotels.
Police have yet to locate the murder weapon.
The head of the Bulgarian Football Union, Ivan Slavkov, and many footballers that ranked fourth at Mondial '94 attended a memorial service for the slain mobster. Bosses of now-defunct SIC and VIS insurance companies, established in the early 1990s with dirty money, also attended the service.
Iliev, who had been sentenced to 11 years in prison for rape, was under investigation in connection with other crimes. He was murdered by an unidentified sniper in a bar in Sunny Beach on the Black Sea coast around 11:30 pm on Thursday with a single shot to the chest.
Iliev was killed while talking on his mobile phone.
Iliev owned the top Bulgarian football club, Lokomotiv Plovdiv, and headed VAI Invest Holding, a successor to VIS.
