Bucharest police treat gay rights activist’s death as suspicious
The death of a British travel writer and gay rights activist in Bucharest is being treated as suspicious.
David St Vincent’s body was found in his Bucharest apartment on 12 January.
Despite not at first treating his death as suspicious, police now say the case has been given to the Bucharest prosecutors’ office.
However those close to St Vincent have said his death may still be deemed as from natural causes.
The 48-year-old travel writer, who campaigned for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Romania, was epileptic, had labyrinthitis and problems with his blood pressure.
Tributes were paid to the Oxford graduate who was described as an “extremely generous, larger-than-life character”.
He was described in the tributes as “a British eccentric in the best possible way”.
St Vincent had previously lived and studied in Iran, where he intended to write a travel guide, but he was deported following accusations of planning to import Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses.
Having been a founding member of the Bucharest Acceptance Group, which later changed its name to Accept, St Vincent helped bring about the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Romania.
The group initially held its meetings secretly, following threats of violence.
