Cyprus rape case: UK woman cleared of lying
BRITISH WOMAN accused of lying about being gang-raped by 12 Israelis while on holiday in Cyprus in 2019 has had the conviction overturned by the Mediterranean island’s supreme court.
Two years after she was handed a suspended four-month sentence for fomenting public mischief, the tribunal threw out the case against the woman, now 21, acknowledging that she had not been given a fair trial.
Michael Polak of the legal aid group Justice Abroad co-ordinated the appeal against the conviction.
He described the latest ruling as “a watershed moment” that was “not just for our client, who has always maintained her innocence even when doing so caused her the hardship of not being able to return home during the lengthy trial proceedings, but also for others round the world in similar positions”.
The woman, a university student from Derby, had accused 12 Israelis of raping her in a hotel room in Ayia Napa in July 2019.
After she made the allegations, the Cypriot authorities arrested the 12 Israeli suspects, then aged between 15 and 22, and took DNA samples from them. Police also found five used condoms and 13 condom wrappers in the room. The suspects were later released from Cypriot custody after the woman retracted her story and was charged with lying to police.
But in her subsequent trial, her defence team argued that the guilty verdict came as a result of a written confession that the woman, who was 19 at the time, later withdrew. They argued that it was extracted under duress and in the absence of a lawyer or translator, following eight hours of questioning by police. Her mother issued a statement in response to the verdict.
She said: “It is a great relief we hear that the authorities in Cyprus have recognised the flaws in their legal process. Whilst this decision doesn’t excuse the way she was treated by the police, or the judge or those in authority, it does bring with it the hope that my daughter’s suffering will at least bring positive changes in the way that victims of crime are treated.”