![\"Cyprus](\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/cyprus-rape-case-AP-320x200.jpg?v=1643646791\")
\n <\/source><\/picture>\n
Lawyer Michael Polak, background, is seen as protesters hold banners in support of a British woman, outside of Cyprus\u2019 Supreme Court in the capital Nicosia on January 31, 2022. [Petros Karadjias\/AP]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Cyprus\u2019 law enforcement authorities failed to live up to their obligation to thoroughly and effectively investigate a British teenager\u2019s claims that she had been gang-raped by a group of Israelis while on a 2019 vacation in a popular resort town, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday.<\/p>\n
In its ruling released Thursday, the court placed particular weight on the failure of the authorities to determine whether the woman \u2013 who was 18 at the time of the alleged rape \u2013 had ever consented to having sex with some of the suspects.<\/p>\n
According to the ruling, the woman had told authorities she rejected the suggestion of having sex with multiple partners. However, the suspects persisted in entering the hotel room where the alleged rape took place, disregarding her pleas for them to leave.<\/p>\n
Even though the woman was having sex with an Israeli friend of the suspects in that hotel room at the time, the court said investigators didn\u2019t establish whether the suspects had secured her consent. According to testimony, some of them only assumed they would because of her previous behavior.<\/p>\n
Flaws in the investigation<\/p>\n
The court said investigators appeared not to take into account the woman\u2019s capacity to consent in light of testimony that she had consumed alcohol prior to the alleged rape and that traces of cocaine were found in her urine.<\/p>\n
Moreover, police and investigators took the suspects\u2019 statements that no rape had taken place \u201cat face value\u201d despite testimony that her Israeli partner \u201csaid he would arrange for his friends to have sex\u201d with her.<\/p>\n
This compounded what the court described as a series of flaws investigators in the initial state of the investigation, from a limited search of physical evidence such as fingerprints in the hotel room to failure to track down potential suspects or witnesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Court observes that the present case reveals certain biases concerning women in Cyprus which impeded the effective protection of the applicant\u2019s rights as a victim of gender-based violence and which, if not reversed, run the risk of creating a background of impunity, discouraging victims\u2019 trust in the criminal justice system, despite the existence of a satisfactory legislative framework,\u201d the ruling said.<\/p>\n
No legal representation and prejudiced proceedings<\/p>\n
The July 2019 case made headlines in Cyprus, Britain and Israel when all 12 suspects were released without charge after the woman retracted her rape claims. The Cyprus attorney-general opted not to pursue legal proceedings against the suspects, while the woman was subsequently found guilty on a charge of public mischief and sentenced to a four-month suspended jail term.<\/p>\n
In the lower court ruling, the judge said the woman didn\u2019t tell the truth and tried to deceive the court with \u201cevasive\u201d statements. He said the woman had admitted to investigators that she made up the claims because she was \u201cashamed\u201d after finding out that some of the Israelis had videoed her having consensual sex with her Israeli boyfriend on their cellphones.<\/p>\n
In 2022, the Cyprus Supreme Court overturned the woman\u2019s conviction, citing among other reasons that she didn\u2019t have a lawyer present when police repeatedly questioned her and that the lower court misconstrued evidence, prejudicing proceedings against her.<\/p>\n
The ECHR ruling said given the conditions of the woman\u2019s questioning by police, \u201cthere is force in her argument\u201d that the \u201clong and repeated interviews\u201d prompted her to retract her rape allegations. The court awarded the woman \u20ac20,000 in damages and another \u20ac5,000 for legal costs.<\/p>\n
Justice Abroad Director Michael Polak, who represented the woman both in Cyprus and at the ECHR, called the ruling a \u201clandmark decision for victims of sexual violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis ruling reinforces the fundamental principle that allegations of sexual violence must be investigated thoroughly and fairly, without institutional obstruction,\u201d he said. [AP]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n