The Cold War poisoned umbrella killing of a Bulgarian dissident in London 30 years ago is being reinvestigated after fresh information about the possible assassin has come to light and a legal deadline is looming, Scotland Yard confirmed Friday, according to dpa. Georgi Markov, a Communist defector and prize-winning author who worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London, was killed with a poison-tipped umbrella as he was waiting in a bus queue in London on September 11, 1978. The former Soviet KGB and senior members of the Bulgarian secret police were suspected of involvement in the murder at the time but the assassin has so far escaped justice. The investigations are of some urgency, as Bulgaria's 30-year statute of limitation would close the book on the case on September 8 of this year. The umbrella, fitted with a tiny pellet containing the poison ricin was concluded to have been the murder weapon. When the Communist regime in Bulgaria collapsed, a stock of Soviet-made assassination umbrellas was found at the Interior Ministry in Sofia, The Times said Friday. At the time of the attack on London's Waterloo Bridge, Markov reported that he felt a sharp jab in his thigh, but thought nothing of it as his assailant, mumbling the word "sorry," made off in a taxi. He died three days later after developing a high temperature. British detectives have visited Bulgaria twice in the past few months on the trail of the killer, Scotland Yard confirmed. A team of Metropolitan Police officers travelled to Bulgaria in April 2007, then in March this year and again last month to pursue new leads in the case. These appear to be linked to a book citing leaked Bulgarian intelligence documents which named the hitman as Francesco Giullino, a Dane of Italian origin who worked for the Bulgarian secret service as agent "Piccadilly." Files which became accessible after the collapse of Communism showed that the Bulgarian secret service sent Giullino, now aged 62, on three trips to London between 1977 and 1978 to "neutralize" Markov. In 1993, Giullino was interrogated in Copenhagen by British and Danish detectives after a tip-off linked him to the case. He admitted espionage but denied any involvement in the Markov killing and was released. The present-day Bulgarian government was keen to "wash its hands" of the case on September 11, this year, when a 30-year-statute of limitation would apply, the Daily Telegraph said. "We are fully cooperating with our colleagues and are having a 100-per cent exchange of information on both sides - something we lacked in the past," Andrei Tsvetanov, the Bulgarian investigator in charge of the case, told the Dnevnik newspaper. The paper reported that Scotland Yard had requested access to archived files and permission to interview some 40 witnesses, including communist-era secret police officers. "A small team of Metropolitan Police officers travelled to Bulgaria in May in connection with the inquiry into the death of Georgi Markov in 1978," a Scotland Yard spokeswoman said. "The inquiry remains open and has been a particularly complex investigation. We continue to work with the appropriate authorities to investigate any new information that is passed or made available to police," she added.
