Cyprus court acquits 5 Israelis accused of raping British tourist
Court says complainant’s account was inconsistent, contradicted witness testimony; orders men, from northern town of Majd al-Krum and held since September 2023, released from jail
A district court in Cyprus on Monday found five Israelis not guilty of an alleged gang rape, dismissing all charges — including rape, forced sexual intercourse, sexual harassment, and abduction — and ordering their release after a year and a half in jail, according to local media and the lawyer for some of the defendants.
In September 2023, a 20-year old British tourist accused the five men, all residents of the Arab Israeli town of Majd al-Krum in the Galilee, of abducting her from the pool area of a hotel, forcing her into a hotel room, and raping and abusing her until she managed to escape.
The defendants confirmed there had been a sexual encounter, but insisted it had been consensual.
A sixth Israeli was also initially arrested, but was later released after police confirmed he was not in the room during the alleged assault.
The court said Monday that the complainant’s account “lacked coherence and contained numerous substantial contradictions,” both internally and when compared to other reliable witnesses, including hotel employees, guests in an adjacent room, and her own close friend, according to Philenews, the English website of local newspaper O Phileleftheros.
Nir Yaslovitzh, who represented two of the defendants, told the Walla news site: “It is a brave decision that completely rejected the complainant’s account and completely accepted my clients’ account.”
“I can’t describe how I feel,” one of the defendants told Ynet. “I was a year and a half in prison, but now they’re letting me out — and I’m forgetting all about it. I want to go home to Israel, and I am a happy man.”
According to Philenews, which cited the court’s decision, the British complainant originally claimed that one of the men had raped her, then claimed two.
She also said she’d been abducted from the pool area, in which more than 100 people were present at the time, including her close friend, whose testimony contradicted the account.
She claimed that she had been shouting, which was contradicted by witnesses in the next room, who the court determined would have heard her.
In addition, the hotel receptionist’s testimony contradicted the complainant’s account of how additional people entered the room, according to the report.
Injuries were presented as evidence of the alleged assault, but the court could not determine their cause or timing, saying they could have predated the incident or been the product of a consensual sexual encounter.
The investigation also found that the complainant had consumed a significant amount of alcohol, MDA and MDMA — but not enough to remove her ability to consent to sex.
In January last year, DNA evidence for two of five suspects was thrown out by the Famagusta criminal court because standard police processes were not followed when the evidence was collected.
The Cyprus Mail reported at the time that the trial would be based on witness statements, including the complainant’s testimony.
According to the Israeli public broadcaster Kan, the prosecution also called on witnesses including hotel workers and others present at the time who claimed to have met her, and who said they believed she’d been raped, based on her physical condition or on things they’d heard.
In a similar case in 2019, which made international headlines, a woman alleged that she was raped by up to 12 Israeli tourists, aged 15 to 22, in a hotel room in the seaside holiday resort of Ayia Napa. She was 18 at the time.
The Israeli teenagers and young men denied any wrongdoing and were eventually released from custody and allowed to return home. More recently, calls have grown for that case to be reopened.
The Times of Israel Community.