Filenews 16 September 2021
An appeal to the Supreme Court was filed today by the lawyers of the British woman, who was convicted of public harm after a false allegation of rape by 12 Israelis in Ayia Napa in July 2019.
At today's hearing, the British woman's legal representatives argued that the court of first instance should not have accepted the 19-year-old's written testimony as evidence, as investigators secured her, after a seven-hour presence of the young woman at the police station, without a lawyer or translator.
According to a Daily Mail report, the team's leader, Lewis Power, said the young woman suffered from panic attacks and proceeded to withdraw her rape complaint after being pressured.
Her legal team said the district court judge failed to provide the British woman with a "fair hearing" because she did not give the defence lawyers the opportunity to present evidence to support the young woman's allegations.
Power said in a written statement that the legal team believes that "justice will eventually be done" so that the woman "can be freed from the shackles of an unjust conviction that has tarnished her new life." Also, her Cypriot lawyer, Nicoletta Charalambidou, also said that the court of first instance started the trial from the position that there was no rape and had misunderstood the offence of public harm, which requires a false statement of a fictitious crime.
He also said that the judge, Michalis Papathanasiou, did not allow the accused to speak about the alleged rape, telling her seven times: "This is not a rape trial." He also claimed that he ignored the evidence of defence experts and did not examine the police's failures in investigating the rape allegations.
The Judges of the Supreme Court reserved their decision.
Speaking after the hearing, Lewis Power said: "I think it was a very fruitful hearing where the court asked very important questions, looked at the legal arguments and identified the points that will ultimately decide on this appeal. We can't predict the court's decision, but we were glad to see that the court had thought a lot and had significantly considered a very, very difficult case."
He concluded: "Beyond any doubt this is the most important case of the last decade and the world is watching. It's so important to young women around the world."
