Not a ‘fair trial’? UK expresses unhappiness with Cyprus over rape claim verdict

The British government is protesting to Cyprus after a Cypriot court convicted a 19-year-old British woman of falsely accusing a dozen Israeli teenagers of raping her at a beach resort in Ayia Napa earlier this year.

London on Monday raised questions over whether the teenager received a fair trial, as activists accused the island nation of tipping the scales in order to protect its relationship with Israel.

“The UK is seriously concerned about the fair trial guarantees in this deeply distressing case and we will be raising the issue with the Cypriot authorities,” a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said in a written statement.

The 19-year-old girl, whose name is barred from publication,  was convicted of “public mischief,” which carries a sentence of up to one year in prison and a fine of around 1,700 euros. Sentencing was adjourned until January 7.

The defense said it would lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court.

“We believe there have been many violations in the procedure and the rights of fair trial have been violated,” the woman’s lawyer, Nicoletta Charalambidou, said.

The case had triggered widespread interest in Britain and Israel. It was reported as a shocking gang rape until Cypriot authorities cast doubt on the woman’s account.

The Sun tabloid accused the Cypriot court of a “stitch-up” on its front page Tuesday.

In Britain, anger over the verdict led some to share a hashtag on social media calling for a boycott of Cyprus, a popular tourist destination for British vacationers.

I think recommending that young women travellers #AvoidCyprus & #BoycottCyprus is word that should be spread. https://t.co/n19U9hu7KE

— AM Scanlon (@amscanlon) December 30, 2019

Rights groups argued the teenager has suffered humiliation and been mistreated by the police and media.

They have called for an investigation into police handling of the case and criticized the way rape cases and victims are treated in Cyprus.

The woman’s mother told the Sun newspaper that the judge was being “vindictive.”

“We are very disappointed with the verdict but aren’t surprised given how it’s gone with that particular judge. He is just trying to show who’s boss,” she said.

Some activists have charged that the Cypriot justice system had gone after the woman instead of her alleged Israeli assailants in order to protect Cyprus’s ties with Jerusalem.

“We are here to defend a 19-year-old girl who has been horribly punished because of political interests,” said British worker Andri Gioakatzi, who was one of several people to protest outside the courtroom Monday, to The Guardian. “She has had to pay the price of Cyprus’s desire to have good relations with Israel. That is why she has been through this and they let all the Israeli boys go.”

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades will meet later this week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens to sign a tripartite agreement fro an eastern Mediterranean gas pipeline to Europe that is expected to transform the formerly energy poor region.

In October, the British woman told the Famagusta district court that police had coerced her into retracting the rape claim she filed in July. She said that interrogators threatened to arrest her if she didn’t admit she had lied and that she didn’t think she would be allowed to leave the police station if she didn’t sign a confession. The woman said she was denied access to a lawyer during the eight-hour questioning and the police investigator told her that authorities had footage proving that the sex she had with the Israeli teens was consensual, though she did not show it to the complainant.

But the judge said during the trial that police had acted properly at all times, with no pressure exerted to change the woman’s mind about her initial rape claim.

British legal aid group Justice Abroad, which is supporting the woman, said the defense would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

“Despite the setback today, the teenager who has spent over a month in prison and six months where she has been unable to leave Cyprus is determined for justice to be done in her case as well as to help change the culture towards victims of sexual offences in Cyprus,” Justice Abroad’s Michael Polak said in a statement.

“We are not surprised by the result given the frequent refusal during the trial of the Judge to consider evidence which supported the fact that the teenager had been raped,” Polak said, saying his group would appeal the case before the Supreme Court of Cyprus.

The lawyer for some of the 12 Israelis accused by the woman of gang raping her welcomed the ruling.

Lawyer Nir Yaslovitzh called for a “harsh sentence” in order to deter “all those accusers who find it OK to make up false” accusations.

AFP contributed to this report.