Diplomacy storm over gang rape trial ‘nightmare’
Ministers threaten to intervene in Cyprus case
A BRITISH teenager was at the centre of a diplomatic row last night after being convicted of inventing a gang-rape attack in a Cyprus party resort.
The UK Government threatened to intervene over ‘serious concerns’ about the 19-year-old woman’s treatment during a five-month-long court case.
Officials said that they would raise the case with their Cypriot counterparts, with a Foreign Office spokesman adding: ‘The UK is seriously concerned about the fair trial guarantees in this deeply distressing case.’
The teenager’s distraught mother said last night her daughter was living a ‘nightmare’, but had vowed to fight yesterday’s ruling all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in order to clear her name.
During a summer trip before starting university, the then 18-year-old told Cypriot police in July she was raped by up to 12 Israeli youths in the party town of Ayia Napa, having been held down by others as she had consensual sex with one.
But she later retracted her statement, saying she was under pressure from detectives after ten hours of questioning which was not recorded or carried out in front of a lawyer.
Rather than being allowed home, the woman – who cannot be named for legal reasons – found herself in police custody and stranded on the isle for five months, charged with ‘public mischief’.
Her lawyers say yesterday’s guilty verdict was ‘set before the trial’, claiming there were ‘many violations’ of her right to a fair trial.
The judge did not hear from any of the woman’s alleged attackers and was adamant he would not rule on whether she was raped or not, despite three men admitting they had sex with her. Judge Michalis Papathanasiou, who often reduced the woman to tears, dismissed evidence put forward by UK experts that supported her claim of being attacked and ruled she ‘did not make a good impression, she did not tell the truth and tried to mislead the court’.
The teenager’s mother said she was ‘very disappointed’ by the ‘absolutely astonishing verdict’ and said the ‘nightmare’ has left her daughter suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, afraid when she hears loud, male, foreign voices, and suffering from insomnia, and even hallucinations.
The mother said her daughter was ‘resolute to see justice’ for the ‘violation’ of her human rights. The teenager will be sentenced next Tuesday and faces up to a year in jail and a fine of £1,500.
‘It would be an injustice if they decide to imprison her for any more days than the four-and-a-half weeks she’s already spent in prison [on remand],’ her mother said.
The teenager said she was ‘forced’ by police to change her story, telling the judge she was ‘scared for my life’. She added: ‘I didn’t think I would leave that police station without signing that statement.’
But Judge Papathanasiou ruled the teenager lied as revenge, which she denies, for being filmed having sex without her knowledge.
The judge told the court: ‘The defendant gave police a false rape claim, while having full knowledge this was a lie. The guilt of the accused is proven. She confessed.’
As the verdict was delivered, women’s rights campaigners protested outside Famagusta District Court in Paralimni. They said the teenager had been ‘raped again by the justice system’.
The handling of the case has led to calls for an independent investigation amid fears the Midlands teenager is the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice.
Lawyer Mike Polak, of Justice Abroad, a campaign group assisting the young woman, said it felt like the verdict was set ‘before the trial started’, adding: ‘We will be appealing the decision to the Cypriot Supreme Court and to the European Court of Human Rights if we cannot get justice within Cyprus.’
Defence lawyer Nicoletta Charambidou said she felt there was enough evidence to prove the woman was raped, adding: ‘We believe there have been many violations of the procedure.’
‘Violations of procedure’