UK Edition
Dominic Raab expresses 'serious concern' over possible miscarriage of justice in Cyprus 'rape' case
Dominic Raab has expressed “serious concern” about the potential for a miscarriage of justice after a court in Cyprus convicted a British teenager of lying about being gang-raped on holiday.
The Foreign Secretary will raise the case with the Cypriot authorities after the 19-year-old, who told police she was raped by up to 12 Israeli youths in her hotel room, was left facing up to a year in jail while her alleged attackers were allowed to return home.
The alleged victim had withdrawn her complaint two weeks after the alleged incident, but says she was “forced” to do so by police who left her “scared for my life” and who did not record the interview, meaning it was her word against theirs in court.
The case has raised questions about the island’s treatment of victims of sexual assault, with protestors claiming the Cypriot authorities “always find a reason not to believe women who claim they have been raped”.
On Monday night the girl told The Sun she was not surprised by the judgment and vowed to clear her name.
The teenager also claimed she has been contacted by other people who have been "forced to remain silent" during similar experiences.
Referring to her plans to appeal, she told the newspaper: “This fight is for them and many more."
The teenager’s mother told ITV News: “I find myself kind of unable to believe the violations of human rights she has experienced throughout the whole affair."
She described the verdict as “absolutely astonishing” and said her daughter was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and needed to get back to the UK to be treated.
A campaign has now been launched online to encourage tourists to boycott Cyprus on the grounds that it is “not safe for women” to go on holiday there.
In a significant hardening of the Foreign Office’s stance on the case, sources said “all options are on the table” if there appears to be a miscarriage of justice.
Mr Raab, a former lawyer who spent time on secondment to the human rights group Liberty, is understood to have followed the case closely and “takes issues of access to justice extremely seriously”, sources said.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “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."
As well as the allegation that she was pressured to retract her statement, the court heard claims that the police had failed properly to secure the alleged crime scene or maintain fully the integrity of medical and forensic evidence.
The alleged victim, from Derbyshire, sighed as a judge said, via a translator, that she had been convicted of “public mischief” following a trial in Paralimni in the Famagusta district of Cyprus.
Around 25 protesters from the Network Against Violence Against Women sat in the courtroom with gags over their mouths showing an image of stitched-up lips to support the defendant.
As the defendant left court they shouted: "We are with you. We know. We believe you."
She will be sentenced on Jan 7, when she could be sent to prison for up to a year and ordered to pay a £1,500 fine.
The teenager reported the alleged rape to police hours after the alleged incident on July 17, when she was on a working holiday in the resort of Ayia Napa during her summer break between finishing school and starting university. Soon afterwards, the 12 Israelis, who denied the allegations, were arrested.
Two weeks later the woman was questioned for eight hours by Cypriot police without a lawyer or family member present. During that time, she signed a statement of retraction saying she concocted the story. She later told the court: “I didn’t think I would leave that police station without signing that statement.”
The teenager’s mother said her lack of access to lawyers while being questioned “for hours on end” was “very bizarre”.
She was charged with causing public mischief, defined by the Cypriot criminal code as knowingly providing police with “a false statement concerning an imaginary offence”. She was arrested in August and had her passport confiscated.
The woman has had to forego a place at university in the UK because of the trial proceedings and has remained in Cyprus since July after she was refused permission to return home.
The prosecution claimed she had made up the story because she felt ashamed and humiliated after discovering that she had been filmed having sex with one of the Israelis.
In his ruling, Judge Michalis Papathanasiou said the defendant did not tell the truth and tried to deceive the court with "convenient" and "evasive" statements.
Her lawyers claimed she was suffering from psychological trauma after the alleged incident and retracted her statement to police under duress.
The Israelis, aged 15 to 18, were allowed to go home to Tel Aviv, where they celebrated their release by shouting "the Brit is a whore" and popping champagne at Ben Gurion airport.
Maria Mappouridou, one of the protestors outside court, told the Telegraph: “Police in Cyprus always find a reason not to believe women who claimed they have been raped, many of us here today have experienced it. It's like Cyprus is 100 years behind on this, it's hard to believe we're fighting this in 2019 in an EU country.
"This woman was not only raped by those 12 men, but raped by the state, by society and by the media here.”
Michael Polak, a British lawyer who is part of the teenager's defence team, told The Telegraph: "We are very disappointed with the decision but we are not surprised given how the trial was conducted.
"It doesn't finish here. The next stage will be to appeal to the Supreme Court of Cyprus and then, if necessary, to the European Court of Human Rights."
The appeals process could take up to four years, he said.
Equality Now, an international women's rights organisation that campaigns on failings in laws relating to sexual violence, said there needed to be an investigation into how the teenager was treated by the Cypriot police on the night she signed her retraction statement.
Alexandra Patsalides, a human rights lawyer with the organisation, said: “The teenager’s court testimony about being gang-raped and her subsequent treatment by state authorities, alongside the supporting evidence provided by expert witnesses for the defence, clearly expose the need for a comprehensive investigation into the night in question and the way the case has been handled by Cypriot police, medical authorities and state prosecutors.”
British tourists in Ayia Napa said they were “disgusted” by the decision and would not be returning to the island. “It doesn’t give you much faith that if it happened to another girl, that there would be justice,” said Nicole Moore, 24, from Lincolnshire.
On Twitter, supporters used the hashtag #BoycottCyprus.
Lou Cahill, a nurse, said: “British tourists make up a significant part of the tourism industry that keeps the Cyprus economy going. When booking your holidays this year, remember actions speak louder than words.”