BRITISH WOMAN TO APPEAL SUSPENDED SENTENCE FOR FALSE RAPE CLAIM
Cyprus Mail 7 January 2020 - article by Nick Theodoulou
The 19-year-old covers her face as she enters court on Monday (Christos Theodorides)
The British teenager convicted of lying about being gang-raped by a group of Israeli tourists is due to fly home later on Tuesday after she was handed a suspended four-month jail sentence.
The 19-year-old’s defence team immediately said they would appeal the sentence at the supreme court.
Her highly controversial trial caused an outcry in Britain and the judge had to raise his voice to be heard over the chants of her supporters outside the courtroom in Paralimni.
“We want justice, we don’t want favours,” chanted the crowd of some 50 Israeli protesters, who were joined by Cypriot women.
The press outside the courtroom (Christos Theodorides)
This was a reference to reports that President Nicos Anastasiades would pardon her if the judge had jailed her. It meant she knew she would be going home even before the judge entered the court. Dressed in a black top and matching trousers, the teenager smiled nervously in the dock as she awaited the judge’s arrival, occasionally twisting her long hair in her hands.
“If you cannot scream, we will scream for you,” came the easily audible chant from outside the court building. The protesters from Israel and Cyprus had a different message for the judge: “Mr judge, shame on you, don’t you have a daughter too?”
Judge Michalis Papathanasiou decided that the young Briton deserved a ‘second chance’ despite the ‘seriousness of her crime’.
Freeing her he said: “Her psychological state, her youth, that she has been away from her family, her friends and academic studies this year. This has led me to decide to give her a second chance and suspend the sentence for three years.”
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Papathanasiou had his head down as he delivered his monologue, but raised his head towards the end and said that “twelve innocents had their freedom curtailed, which added to the severity of the case.”
After the 15-minute court session, the girl’s mother appeared before the cheering crowd and said: “I just want to thank each and every one of you, for your help, it is so appreciated.”
A British lawyer for the girl then read a statement insisting his client was the victim of a “premeditated gang rape” by a group of Israeli youths in July and that they would appeal her guilty verdict, which caused an outcry in Britain when it was issued last week.
Lawyer Lewis Power and the mother of the young woman after her daughter’s sentencing (Christos Theodorides)
“This girl was stripped both of her dignity and her human rights,” Lewis Power QC said, reading a statement before British and Israeli television cameras on the steps of the court building.
He praised the girl’s “immense bravery” in undergoing a lengthy trial which she could have avoided had she not insisted her “confession” was made under duress.
The case has been highly controversial from the outset with not just the British media but also the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab raising concerns over the treatment of the teenager with the Cypriot authorities.
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The teenager claimed she was raped by up to 12 Israeli tourists in a hotel room in the party town of Ayia Napa on July 17.
She was charged, while the young men, aged between 15 and 20, who were arrested over the incident, were freed after she signed a retraction statement 10 days later.
The woman spent around a month in prison before being granted bail in August. She was then forced to stay in Cyprus until the public mischief trial was completed.
She maintains she was raped after having consensual sex with one of the Israelis but forced to change her account under pressure from Cypriot police.
The case hinged on a retraction statement signed by the teenager following hours of questioning alone and without legal representation.
The 19-year-old covers her face as she enters court on Monday (Christos Theodorides)
