The media coverage of the car crash in which Liam Lawlor died was "reckless, vengeful and ill-corroborated", the sole survivor said tonight.
Julia Kushnir, a 29-year-old Ukrainian translator, was travelling in the front seat of the car when it crashed in Moscow en route from the airport.
In her first public statement since the accident, she said she had been shocked and disgusted by the reports that appeared in the press.
"They were reckless vengeful and ill-corroborated. To that end, I do not believe they warrant any further attention in this statement," she said.
The Sunday Independentand other newspapers have apologised for wrongly reporting that Mr Lawlor's female travelling companion was likely to be a prostitute.
"The days following the accident I thought that nothing could make what had happened any worse but I was wrong," Ms Kushnir said in a statement which did not rule out taking legal action.
She described how she and her family and her friends had been plagued by the press disrupting their business, personal and private lives.
"We have all been subjected to the most rigorous, painful and searching scrutiny here in Prague. Since I returned to Prague, I have not given any media interviews.
"This did not stop the media from behaving in the most disgraceful manner and printing quotes, supposedly from me, which were made up, false and inaccurate."
Ms Kushnir has been living in Prague for the last 14 years, where she had been working as a law clerk and attending Charles University.
She has a five-year-old daughter and hopes to qualify as a lawyer in January.
She said she met Liam Lawlor three months ago through her work as a translator and intermediary for business people.
He had been carrying out business with Ruslan Suliamanov, who Ms Kushir said was the highly respected chief executive of a Russian company.
"Mr Suliamanov, who collected us from the airport, was the husband of a dear friend of mine.
While Mr Lawlor was to be dropped off at his hotel, I was to stay with Mr Suliamanov, at his family home." She said that on the drive from the airport, she was seated in front passenger seat in order to be able to speak with Mr Suliamanov, as Mr Lawlor did not speak Russian.
"A man and a woman ran out in front of the car. We swerved and I have no memory of what followed the crash. The only thing I remember was waking up in the ambulance in a disorientated state and learning that I was the sole survivor of the accident," she said.
Mr Lawlor, who spent time in prison for refusing to comply with the Planning Tribunal, was buried last week at Esker Cemetery in Dublin.
Ms Kushnir said that in the course of her professional dealings with Mr Lawlor, she found him to be a very friendly man and everybody had great respect for him.
"My heart, my prayers and my condolences go out to his entire family for whom he always showed a deep love and affection. I also wanted to express great sorrow to Mr Suliamanov's wife and four young children."