Poland’s prime minister has announced that his government will seek the extradition of a Bangladeshi man suspected of murdering a Polish woman in Greece. He wants the perpetrator, who is currently in Greek custody, to “stand before a Polish court and receive the highest possible sentence”.
Anastazja Rubińska, a 27-year-old from the Polish city of Wrocław, went missing on 12 June on the Greek island of Kos, a popular holiday destination, where she worked in a hotel. Her disappearance was reported to police the next day by her boyfriend, who works in the same hotel.
Rubińska dead body was found, reportedly naked from the waist down, yesterday around one kilometre from the home of a 32-year-old Bangladeshi man who had a day earlier been arrested on suspicion of being connected to Rubińska’s disappearance.
CNN Greece reports that first indications suggest she died by strangulation and that “overwhelming evidence” points to the involvement of the Bangladeshi man. His roommate is also being investigated on suspicion of helping move the body.
According to CNN, the scenario being considered by the police is that Rubińska was lured into the property on the pretext of receiving cannabis, which she had requested. Injuries to the 32-year-old suspect suggest Rubińska may have fought back against her alleged attacker.
Greek media have also reported that the suspect purchased a plane ticket to Italy after Rubińska’s disappearance.
Rubińska’s father, Andrzej Rubiński, told Polish news website Onet that the suspect had been identified after CCTV footage showed Rubińska getting on a motorcycle whose licence number was traced to him.
This morning, Poland’s justice minister, who also serves as prosecutor general, announced that he had ordered Polish prosecutors to investigate the murder. They would immediately request evidence from the Greek authorities, he added.
Minister @ZiobroPL (red.) polecił prokuraturze we Wrocławiu wszczęcie śledztwa i jeszcze dziś wystąpi o pomoc prawną, dokumenty do strony greckiej (..) Najbardziej prawdopodobny scenariusz to zabójstwo z rąk osoby z Azji, tzw. uchodźcy, czyli migranta ekonomicznego-@MWosPL #Kos pic.twitter.com/WT5yT4Fmik
— KwadransPolityczny (@KwadransPolit) June 19, 2023
A few hours later, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, also issued a statement.
“The perpetrator must face very severe consequences,” he wrote. “Therefore, we will ask Greece to extradite the suspect to stand before a Polish court and receive the highest possible sentence.”
Jestem wstrząśnięty brutalnym morderstwem 27-letniej Anastazji. Sprawca musi ponieść bardzo surowe konsekwencje. Dlatego zwrócimy się do Grecji o wydanie podejrzanego, aby stanął przed polskim sądem i otrzymał najwyższy możliwy wymiar kary.
— Mateusz Morawiecki (@MorawieckiM) June 19, 2023
Earlier, a deputy justice minister, Michał Woś, had sought to link the case to the fact that Greece has become a primary destination for migrants and asylum seekers. The Polish government has long presented this as a threat to Europe.
“This [Rubińska’s] case needs to be clarified very carefully, especially since we already know, we can say today, that the most likely scenario was a murder at the hands of a person from Asia, the so-called refugees, that is, economic migrants,” Woś told state broadcaster TVP.
Poland's ruling party has passed a parliamentary resolution condemning the EU's proposed migrant relocation scheme.
Its leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, also announced that a referendum will be organised to allow Poles to vote on the EU plan https://t.co/edUpKMiukC
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 15, 2023
Main image credit: Facebook
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
