The Cypriot Supreme Court on Monday overturned the conviction of a young British woman for lying about being gang raped by Israeli tourists.
The unnamed woman, who was 18 at the time of her arrest, 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 in July 2019.
Defense lawyers successfully argued there had been a miscarriage of justice when a district court in January 2020 found her guilty of public mischief and handed her a suspended four-month jail term.
The court in Nicosia, the Cypriot capital, handed down its decision after considering an appeal launched in September by the woman’s lawyers.
Michael Polak, who was among a team of lawyers representing the woman, called the decision a “watershed moment” for the woman and others “around the world who find themselves in similar positions.”
Polak said the Supreme Court agreed with the defense that the British woman didn’t receive a fair trial and that important fair trial provisions were “totally disregarded in this case.”
He said the “young, vulnerable woman was not only mistreated” when she reported the rape to police but was also put through a trial that was “manifestly unfair” as the Supreme Court found.
Defense lawyers had said the woman — whose identity hasn’t been formally released and was 19 at the time of her trial — was suffering from a stress disorder and had been pressured into making an “unreliable” retraction.
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