Activists Contest With Malta Police Say Paulina Dembska’s Murder Was Not Gender Based
Activists in Malta have reacted strongly to the latest press conference of the Malta Police Force on the murder of Paulina Dembska.
“In a country where the vast majority of rape victims are women and where the number of women killed by men continues to rise, it is unrealistic and pointless to deny that there is a link between the killings of women. “Paulina and the fact that she was a woman killed by a man because she was a woman,” the Graffiti Movement said in a statement.
“The police statement was in fact contradicted by the statement that the alleged perpetrator will also be charged with rape. It also turns out that the alleged killer and rapist had a history of sexual harassment of women, “they continued.
Their comments following a police press conference alluded to the fact that Dembska’s murder at the hands of the alleged suspect Abner Aquilina was not motivated by gender.
Dembska, a 29-year-old Polish citizen who was killed on January 2, has been confirmed raped and strangled.
The Malta Women’s Lobby also spoke out against the demands made at yesterday’s press conference:
“The Malta Women’s Lobby objects to the observation made by the Police that in the case of Paulina Dembska no particular sex was targeted.”
“The fact that the victim was violently raped is in itself a clear indicator that she was targeted because she was a woman.”
“If the police can’t see violence against women for what it really is, how can women feel protected in this country?”
Prominent women’s rights lawyer Lara Dimitrijevic said the press conference confirmed “the persistent ignorance of the highest level of gender-based violence”.
What do you do with the police statement?