Lawyers slam Kuneva failings
The lawyers representing Constantina Kuneva, the unionist who was badly injured in an acid attack last December, claimed yesterday that the police bungled their investigation into the assault. Speaking publicly for the first time, lawyers Daphne Vagianou and Costas Papadakis told a news conference that police wasted valuable time in the days immediately after the attack because they focused their inquiries on Kuneva’s friends and family, believing the incident to be a crime of passion, rather than treating it as an attempt to murder Kuneva because of her unionist activity. The 44-year-old was the general secretary of the Attica cleaners’ union. Vagianou and Papadakis claimed that officers failed to question witnesses, including a man who rushed to Kuneva’s aid after the acid was thrown over her. The lawyers also accused the police of failing to make any efforts to discover the exact type of acid used in the attack. A 48-year-old Albanian cleaner was arrested and released last month on suspicion of being involved in the attack but Kuneva’s legal team said yesterday that police only caught him to «intentionally create confusion.» The suspect was released after a judge decided there was not enough evidence to charge him. Vagianou and Papadakis made their comments as doctors revealed the devastating nature of the horrific injuries suffered by Kuneva. Her doctor, Savvas Michail, said that the 44-year-old had lost her sight in one eye and was also in danger of losing her ability to see with the other. Michail said that Kuneva has serious breathing problems due to widespread damage to her larynx, esophagus and stomach, caused by her assailants forcing her to drink some of the acid.
