European Human Rights Court: Cyprus failed UK woman who claimed Israeli gang rape
ECHR agrees with complainant that Cypriot authorities breached obligations to effectively investigate and prosecute her 2019 allegations against group of tourists who were released
Cyprus failed in its legal duty to investigate a British woman’s allegation in 2019 that she had been gang-raped by Israeli tourists on the holiday island, the European Court of Human Rights said on Thursday.
The woman, who was 18 at the time and is identified in court documents as “X,” reported being raped by Israeli youths in July 2019 in the resort of Ayia Napa.
However, after hours of police interrogation without legal representation, she retracted her statement — which she later said she had done under duress. She was charged with “public mischief” and handed a suspended jail sentence.
In its ruling, the ECHR agreed with “X” that Cyprus had breached its obligations to effectively investigate and prosecute her allegations.
After her retraction, the youths were released from detention and returned home without facing further legal action. Some said they had had consensual sex with “X” but all denied rape.
In January 2022, Cyprus’s Supreme Court overturned the woman’s conviction, upholding her assertion that she had retracted her allegation under pressure, casting a harsh light on Cypriot practices in investigating sexual abuse.
Despite that ruling, Cyprus’s attorney-general declined to reopen an investigation into her original complaint, her lawyers said.
Michael Polak, director of Justice Abroad, who was among a team of lawyers representing the woman, said at the time they would take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights as the attorney general’s decision to initiate or discontinue criminal proceedings cannot be appealed, which left the woman and her family no recourse to challenge the refusal to reinvestigate the case.
The submission to the European Court of Human Rights argued the woman’s rights were violated because the original probe of the case was mishandled, resulting in a breach of Cyprus’s obligation to appropriately investigate and prosecute sexual crimes, Polak told the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper.
Defense lawyers have said the woman was suffering from a stress disorder as a result of the rape, and had been pressured into making an “unreliable” retraction. Moreover, the team said the “discourteous” lower court judge failed to provide the woman with a “fair hearing” because he didn’t give defense lawyers the chance to put forward evidence supporting the woman’s claims.
Prior to the Supreme Court ruling, the British government said it had raised “numerous concerns” with Cypriot authorities about the judicial process in the case and the woman’s right to a fair trial.
The Times of Israel Community.