Cypriot women demonstrate in front of the capital Nicosia's supreme court in support of the British woman
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)A British woman who was found guilty of lying about being gang-raped in Cyprus has been exonerated after winning her appeal against conviction.
The 21-year-old woman said she was attacked by up to 12 Israeli men in a budget hotel room in Ayia Napa in July 2019, but was then accused of lying about the incident.
She was held on the island for more than half a year - including a month behind bars - while awaiting her trial, and continued to insist that the rape allegation was genuine and a retraction statement had been forced out of her under police pressure.
She was found guilty of telling lies, but the Supreme Court of Cyprus on Monday granted her appeal against conviction, after the woman argued she was not given a fair trial at the Famagusta district court.
In her appeal, lawyers for the woman - who was 19-years-old when her ordeal began - accused the trial judge of being “aggressive and dismissive” and having a “clear bias” against her.
Setting out her case, lawyers wrote: “The judge at the District Court did not provide the defendant with a fair hearing and closed his mind to an essential element by continually shouting ‘this is not a rape trial, I do not want to hear about rape’.”
They argued the judge had stopped the teenager’s legal team from “properly examining and putting forward evidence which supported the teenager’s account that a rape had taken place as described”.
Monday’s decision was revealed through the woman’s lawyers, who welcomed the decision and said the original rape allegation should now be re-investigated.
The men who she accused of the gang-rape were arrested shortly after the incident, but were set free by police as attention swung instead on to the British teenager. She was charged with the offence of public mischief, after making a statement while not receiving legal advice about the alleged false rape claim.
“There was a lot of pressure on the police over the rape allegation. Ayia Napa is a place where many young boys and girls come in their thousands and without tourism this place would be affected,” said Michael Polak, representing the woman at an earlier hearing.
“That was why the Mayor of Ayia Napa was very quick to comment on what had taken place.”
The woman, a university student from Derby, was given a suspended four-month jail term in 2020 after her trial, and was then allowed to leave the holiday island.
Announcing the decision, the woman’s Cypriot lawyer Nicoletta Charalambidou said: “This is a very important day for women’s rights and in particular for victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence in Cyprus.
“The acquittal by the Supreme Court of the young teenager points to the failure of the authorities to effectively investigate the rape claims she reported. This is what we will now pursue.”
The woman, who had vowed to clear her name having flown back to the UK hours after she was sentenced, and her family did not attend the hearing.
Her family said in a statement: “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.
“Of course, if justice is to be done, an authority would need to pick up on the evidence that was gathered in Cyprus and do with it what should have happened at the outset.”
