Filenews 4 February 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
"Reopened", but in the Legal Service for the time being, the file of rape of the 19-year-old British woman, with a view to deciding whether it is appropriate to start new investigations.
According to information from "F", following the Supreme Court's decision to acquit the 19-year-old and acquit her of the conviction for a false complaint, the Legal Service asked the Police and received the file of the case as it had been investigated in 2019 and concerned a complaint of gang rape, for study in connection with the decision of the Court of Appeal. At the time, the case had gone as far as organizing a reconnaissance faction in order for the British woman to identify her alleged rapists. However, she had not had time to do this process, because when she was called to the Famagusta ICF for clarifications on her testimony, she was eventually found suspicious and then accused of public harm, since, according to the Police, she had retracted her complaint.
According to the same information, a team of lawyers in the General Prosecutor's Office are studying one by one the statements taken by the investigators at the time, as well as the three statements that the 19-year-old had given to the Police. There is also independent testimony from a doctor who attended there in connection with the coroner's findings.
As mentioned in "F", what will tip the balance of whether the case will be reopened or not, is whether there is the legal basis to continue the investigations into gang rape. It is estimated that since the Court of Appeal said that the revocation of the rape complaint was set aside by being acquitted of a false accusation, it now remains to be seen whether there is any evidence that would help bring a rape case to court.
The problem, according to the same sources, is that the seven involved are in Israel and it will be difficult to come to Cyprus.
Regarding the issue of the video recorded by Israelis and that someone leaked, the Police had not investigated anything, because apart from the fact that they did not have a complaint about a leak of personal data, those involved had already left for their country.
However, everything is open and in the coming days there will be developments, whether positive or not, while the British woman's lawyers are also waiting, who will act according to the decisions.
