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A Cyprus court has acquitted five Israeli men accused of abducting and raping a British woman in the resort town of Ayia Napa, a verdict that has drawn widespread condemnation and renewed criticism of the country’s handling of sexual assault cases.
The three-judge panel in Paralimni dismissed the case, citing inconsistencies in the 20-year-old victim’s testimony. The defendants, aged 19 to 20, maintained that the sexual encounter was consensual. However, the woman's lawyer, Michael Polak, refuted this, emphasizing that she is gay and would not have willingly engaged in group sex with strangers. He described the ruling as further evidence of Cyprus’s "patriarchal" justice system.
Women’s rights advocates and legal experts have decried the decision, pointing to a broader pattern of inadequate protection for sexual assault survivors in Cyprus. Susana Pavlou, head of the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies, condemned the court’s reasoning, particularly its assertion that the woman’s consumption of drugs and alcohol did not impair her ability to consent.
The case follows a similar 2019 incident in which another British woman alleged gang rape by Israeli men in Ayia Napa. The European Court of Human Rights later ruled that Cypriot authorities had failed to investigate her claims properly. The same judge from that case, Michalis Papathanasiou, presided over this latest trial, raising further concerns about judicial bias.
Polak has not ruled out escalating the case to the European Court of Human Rights, as activists continue to demand reform in Cyprus’s treatment of sexual violence cases.
With information from The Guardian.
