A British teenager found guilty of lying about a gang rape in Cyprus - sparking protests from women’s rights and justice campaigners - has launched an appeal against her conviction. The woman says she was forced to retract her rape accusation by Greek police which then led to her conviction of public mischief.
Now back in the UK after receiving a four-month sentence suspended for thee years, her lawyer, Lewis Power QC has stated the case is 'not finished by any means'. The woman, who has not yet been named, was convicted on 30 December.
'Every second of this ordeal has been a waking nightmare...I’m 19 and all I want to do is clear my name and come home to my family,' she told The Sun. 'I would say to both the foreign secretary and prime minister, both of whom are fathers, please support me with your actions, not just with your words.'
The 19-year-old maintains that she was raped by 12 Israeli men, aged between 15 and 22, after having consensual sex with one of the group while on holiday in Ayia Napa last summer. Less than a month after reporting her accusation to the police in Cyprus, she retracted it and the Israeli men, who had been in custody, were free to leave Cyprus and return home.
The British woman claims, however, that she was coerced into withdrawing the allegation by Cypriot police. In August, when the woman first faced a charge of ‘public mischief’ for the alleged lies about the gang rape, a lawyer for the legal aid group Justice Abroad outlined the conditions that led to her retracting the gang-rape allegation and confessing to lying.
Michael Polak, a British barrister with Justice Abroad, said she had been refused legal representation, despite requests, which is in contravention of the European convention on human rights. He also claimed that none of the proceedings conducted by Cypriot police were recorded. Speaking in August, he said: ‘Pressure was placed upon her to write the confession despite her stating that she did not want to. The confession was obtained under oppression given the threats made, that she was not cautioned, and that she was not given access to a lawyer as was her right under the Cypriot constitution and European convention on human rights.’
Earlier this month, Polack told the BBC that it 'was a very worrying conviction for a number of reasons'. 'It's very worrying for a court to rely upon a contraction statement given after more than seven hours in a police station,' he said.
A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said before her sentencing that they are 'seriously concerned' about the 'fair trial guarantees in this deeply distressing case and we will be raising the issue with Cypriot authorities'.
The Judge in the case said the defendant admitted to investigators that she had lied because she was ‘ashamed’ that some of the Israelis had videoed her having sex on their mobile phones. Her lawyers, however, had maintained that she had only retracted her allegations under duress from police.
After the verdict, the woman’s lawyer said: ‘The decision of the court is respected. however, we respectfully disagree with it. We believe there have been many violations of the procedure and the rights of a fair trial of our client have been violated. We are planning to appeal the decision to the supreme court, and if justice fails … we are planning to take our case to the European court of human rights.’
According to the teenagers mother, her daughter has been suffering with post-traumatic stress, hallucinations and hypersomnia.
A Go Fund Me page was established to raise funds for her legal representation in Cyprus. So far, more than £150,000 has been donated.
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