– I am not in favor of the death penalty, but I would like him to experience what my daughter experienced – this is what the mother of Anastazja, a 27-year-old Polish woman, raped and murdered on the Greek island of Kos, says. Anastazja worked in a hotel there. The person accused of her murder faces life imprisonment.
A man accused of the murder of a young Polish woman was brought to court in the Greek city of Kos so quickly that the dead girl's mother, who was waiting for him, didn't even have time to look him in the eye.
– I am not in favor of the death penalty, but I would like him to experience what my daughter Anastazja experienced – says Natalia Rubińska, the mother of the murdered woman.
One of the most famous cases of the last few decades
The trial of 33-year-old Sallahudin S. – a Bangladeshi citizen working in Kos – shocked the peaceful island, which relies on tourism.
– The prosecutor's office accuses Sallahudin S. of kidnapping, rape and murder of Anastazja – informs detective Dawid Burzacki.
The trial started with reluctance because some of its participants received the case files only on December 2. – Anastazja's death is one of the most famous criminal cases of the last several decades. Some residents of the island, which earns its living from tourism, are afraid of its good image, while most of them demand a quick explanation of the case and justice – points out Marcin Jakubczyk, reporter of the “Uwaga!” program. TVN.
27-year-old Anastazja worked in Kos in one of the hotels. On that fateful day last June, her boss sent her home early. Surveillance captured the Polish woman in one of the bars, and then in a store where she was shopping.
It was there that she met several Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals also working on the island. She got on a scooter with Sallahudin S. and went to his apartment. – In my opinion, she was too trusting. I warned her to be careful, says Mr. Andrzej, Anastazja's father.
“How to hide a body?”, “how to get rid of fingerprints?”, “how to confuse investigators?”
Anastazja managed to write to her boyfriend, but then the contact broke off. Sallahudin S. was the main suspect from the beginning because he was the last person to see the Polish woman. He also bought a plane ticket to Italy and planned to leave the island.
– He typed phrases in his phone: “how to hide a body”, “how to get rid of fingerprints”, “how to confuse investigators” – says Dawid Burzacki. After his arrest, he pleaded not guilty.
A volunteer from a special rescue group found the girl's body. It was packed in bags and hidden under a pile of branches near a salt lake – one of the tourist attractions of the island of Kos. Anastasia was probably strangled and raped before her death. – When you see the girl's body in such a condition and at the same time know what happened, you cannot forget it – says a volunteer from the search and rescue group.
Just after Anastazja's murder, the then Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced efforts to extradite the suspect to Poland. The prosecutor's office claims that everything depends on whether a verdict is passed in Greece that is satisfactory to the Polish side, because then a separate trial in the country would not be necessary.
– We have our investigation conducted in Poland. Separate proceedings are being conducted in Greece, says Karolina Stocka-Mycek from the District Prosecutor's Office in Wrocław.
The accused faces up to life imprisonment.
Main photo source: private archive