Information about the murdered child in Greece
23 August 2010
The Bulgarian Embassy in Athens received official information today on the case of the Bulgarian child Reni Traykova (born in 1999), who was murdered in the village of Eleochori in the Arkadia region.
The disappearance of the 11-year-old Bulgarian girl was reported at 3 a.m. on 22 August 2010. Police forces, fire-fighters and voluntary groups were immediately mobilised to look for the missing child. At the same time, questioning began of suspects and people known to have communicated recently with the missing girl, among whom the Albanian citizen Yani Malo Merkai, born in 1969. During the questioning, Merkai confessed that he took the child in his car with the intention of giving her a lift to her home. Instead, he took her to a deserted area at a distance of 7 km from the village of Eleochori, raped her and threw her into a 10 m deep well. After confessing to the police, Yani Merkai took the policemen to the scene of the crime, where he again confirmed that he had committed that crime.
The Albanian citizen has been detained and criminal charges for premeditated murder have been brought against him.
Counselling assistance has been provided to the girl’s family. The Bulgarian Embassy is in permanent contact with the official authorities on that case.
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