A 19-year-old British woman was convicted by a Cyprus court of committing public mischief, fraud and filing a false complaint after accusing 12 Israelis of raping her this summer in a hotel room in Aiya Napa, a Mediterranean resort town on the southeast coast of Cyprus.
Judge Michalis Papathanasiou ruled that the woman was an “unreliable witness” and determined that she had lied about being raped in July, calling it an act of revenge against the young men who had evidently filmed her while she performed a sex act.
“My conclusion is that the guilt of the accused has been proven beyond reasonable doubt,” he said in his verdict, adding that her claims were inconsistent, and that she had attempted to mislead the court.
The unidentified teenager is eligible for up to a year in prison and a fine of 1,000 euros.
Her story raised a scandal in Israel and in the Mediterranean region, when she testified that she had gone willingly to a hotel room with one of the Israelis, after which time another 11 arrived and took turns raping her.
Three of the Israelis admitted to having sexual contact with the woman, but said that her participation was consensual. The other nine men said they had no physical contact with the accuser.
After local officials took DNA tests and watched footage of the event, five of the Israelis were released. The other seven were allowed to return home after she retracted her allegations, confessing that she had fabricated the claims after being filmed.
After the Israelis returned home, the woman said police had intimidated her into signing a confession they had written. She added that she had been denied contact with her lawyer during a marathon eight-hour interrogation during which she didn’t know she had the right to leave and of which police made no recording.
