Slavcho Binev, the former taekwondo champion who became one of Bulgaria’s best-known businessmen and politicians, was killed in Sofia on October 24, 2026. He was 60. Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry confirmed that he was shot at his home in the capital’s Pavlovo district. Police said they received the alert shortly before 10:30 a.m., and medics could only confirm his death.
The investigation
Three suspects were detained on the Trakia motorway shortly after the shooting. Police said that, at this stage of the investigation, the killing does not appear to have been a contract murder. Bulgarian media reported other details from unofficial sources, which the authorities have not confirmed. The investigation is continuing.
Champion and businessman
Binev, widely known as Slavi Binev, was born on December 10, 1965. He made his name in sport, winning the European taekwondo championship in 1992, and later led the Bulgarian Olympic Taekwondo Federation as its president. From the early 1990s until 2006 he was one of the main shareholders of R-System Holding, a group of more than 100 companies, and he became a prominent figure in Sofia’s business and nightlife scene.
A turbulent political career
Binev entered politics with the nationalist Attack party and was elected to the European Parliament in 2007, the year Bulgaria joined the European Union; he was re-elected in 2009 and served until 2014. In 2012 he founded his own party, People for Real, Open and United Democracy. He won a seat in Bulgaria’s National Assembly for Haskovo in 2014 with the Patriotic Front, and his brief appointment that year as chairman of the parliamentary culture and media committee ended with his resignation after public protests. He later joined the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. He is survived by his wife, Maria, and their five children.