Poison-umbrella killer unmasked

Previously secret files have identified an Italian drug smuggler turned secret agent as the hitman who killed Bulgarian Georgi Markov with a poison-pellet umbrella on London's Waterloo Bridge.

Bulgarian intelligence service documents say the assassin was Francesco Giullino, an Italian living in Denmark, who became an agent after he was caught smuggling drugs on the Bulgarian border.

Markov, a playwright critical of the Communist regime in his home country, was killed in 1978 by a pellet containing the poison ricin, believed to have been "shot" into him from an umbrella while he was standing at a bus stop on the bridge.

Markov, who worked for the BBC's World Service, died three days later.

The official documents show Giullino - apparently known to the Bulgarian secret service as "Agent Piccadilly" - was the only agent in London at the time and flew to Italy the day after.

His cover during his overseas trips was said to be either as a picture framer or antiques salesman.

The documents, which a leading post-Communist official has confirmed as genuine, were uncovered during lengthy research by Hristo Hristov, a Bulgarian journalist; extracts were published in a Bulgarian newspaper.

It is not the first time Giullino's name has been linked to the case.

He was identified as a suspect in a book in 1996. Three years previously he had been interviewed by Scotland Yard and Danish detectives in Copenhagen after a tipoff connecting him to the killing.

But the authorities had to let him go because there was insufficient evidence to detain him.

Although Scotland Yard reiterated that the case remained open, it is uncertain whether detectives will be able to act on the new information, despite the willingness of the present Bulgarian Government.

In April 1993, a few months after being interviewed, Giullino left Copenhagen and has not been seen since.

- INDEPENDENT