See Update as of January 26, 2020, after sentencing and a Sun interview.

 

Note:  When I started writing about Cyprus rape case, I had no idea how complex it would be nor how long it would take before there was a resolution. If your interest is strong, read the original post along with the monthly updates in the July, August, and November Newsletters. I’m only giving a bare bones summary here.

 

Bare Bones Summary

 

JULY 17, 2019 A British girl, age 19, was allegedly gang raped by twelve Israeli boys aged 15 to 22. She reported it to Ayia Napa police. The boys were arrested and jailed. Lawyers for the boys arrived in Ayia Napa.

 JULY 27, 2019    The girl retracts the rape charge. She is jailed for malicious mischief.

JULY 28 and 29, 2019   All 12 of the Israeli boys are released. They return home to a hero’s welcome.

 

What I have learned since

 

FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2019

An article appeared in the  Times of Israel stating that arriving tourists checked into the Pampas Rocks Hotel and were given the same room where the rape occurred.

    “We went on the balcony and some kids told us that we were staying in the room where the rape happened,” Noa Teller told Channel 13. “Later that night we found a condom under the bed, a bottle of alcohol that wasn’t ours, and a knife in the cupboard.”

Teller permitted Israeli reporters to film and photograph the unmade beds, the stains on the floor, and a used condom. It wasn’t until after the reporters were through with their photography that the Cypriot police arrived at the hotel to collect evidence.

Related and significant to this is a December, 2019 opinion article in Haaretz News , also an Israeli newspaper, which states that Yoav Etiel, a reporter who works for the Walla news site and who had attended the British girl’s Thanksgiving Day trial, told the three Israeli journalists that Marius Christo, the head Cypriot investigator, had testified in court that Israeli journalists had “staged the scene in which the condom had been found, but that investigators has collected everything else before that.”

Who is telling the truth and who is hiding what?

 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2019

In an article in The Sun, a British tabloid, indelicately entitled Banged Up Abroad, we learn that a 34-second video of the rape was leaked to the Pornhub website as well as to the media. Revenge porn is banned under both UK and EU law. Revenge porn is defined as “the sharing of private, sexual materials, either photos or videos, of another person without their consent and with the purpose of causing embarrassment or distress.”

A source who saw the video says that “You can hear one of the boys saying in Hebrew, ‘You’re my whore, say you are my whore.”

“She doesn’t understand and asks what they are saying and one replies in English, ‘We are saying you’re sexy’.”

Nothing is being done to find the person who released the video.

 

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019  

The British girl’s long awaited trial was held but the issues remain pretty much the same. She has lawyers now, Michael Polak from Justice Abroad, and Lewis Power, QC ( Queen’s Counsel – A QC is a senior barrister with experience in many cases.)

We have a little more information. She was in the Cyprus jail for approximately 4 1/2 weeks. Jails in Cyprus are crowded and have as many as 9 to a cell. Her lawyers attacked the police for not videotaping the interview with the victim and for harassing her. They implied that the police were under a lot of pressure because tourism is important to the town. The police wanted a swift conclusion to the problem of a raped girl. It was attracting too much media notice.

The police insist they are not at fault.

According to The Telegraph, the British girl broke down in tears, “her legs shaking uncontrollably. She held her head in her hands as a translator explained the proceedings, which were conducted in Greek.”

Her lawyers disclosed that she is suffering from PSTD. In addition, she has spent over a month in jail and her passport has been confiscated. She must report to the police station three times a week.

Michael Polak, the British girl’s defense lawyer, pointed out that “She was taken to the police station at 8 pm and the statement was taken at 2 am without a lawyer or any support. They dictated it to her. They did not give her the rights she should have had.”

“She was told ‘if you retract your statement you can go but if not you will be arrested and we will arrest your friends as well’.”

An Israeli witness, Ohad Ben David, testified that he had invited the other Israelis out to a nightclub but they said they were going to stay in the hotel because, “the English girl was coming there later.” He said that the Israeli boys who were accused of raping her, said, “They were going to f–k her, all of them. They were talking about it and laughing that they were going to do orgies with her. They were saying this in a very bad and aggressive manner and they looked like they were ready – all of them – to f–k her that night.”

The trial will reconvene on October 15th.

 

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2019

Women’s organizations in Cyprus wrote a letter to the Cypriot Attorney General asking for the British girls immediate release. The organizations include the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies, family planning organisations, the Equality Observatory, the Green Party Women’s Movement, the Accept LGBTI organization, and the Association for the Prevention of Domestic Violence.

Additionally they say they will ask for a probe into the way police handled the case. They intend to lodge a complaint with the independent police watchdog and the Journalist Ethics Committee.

 

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2019

In a Haaretz News article, Orit Sulitzeanu, who is the Executive Director of The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, says that after watching Unbelievable, the recent Netflix documentary, she noted that it parallelled the Ayia Napa rape. She said that the case couldn’t happen in Israel because of the “Arbel regulation”, a 2002 law that prevents prosecution of individuals who submit false rape complaints. The law’s purpose is to encourage women to speak out against violent sexual crimes.

Suzy Ben-Baruch, the former head of the Israel Police Juvenile Department, also believed it wouldn’t have happened in Israel. She says, “In Cyprus, it was a man who was interrogating this British woman when she signed the statement retracting her complaint. In Israel, it is very rare that you wouldn’t have a female police officer in charge of questioning in a rape case — and one who has undergone special training for dealing with such cases.” She also questions why the interrogation was held in the middle of the night and why noone was with her.

Israel also apparently has an “Affirmative Consent” law. Ben-Baruch says that now “the onus of proof is on the man.”  The man must prove that the woman agreed to have sex. That’s a law the United States needs but we are still light years away from obtaining it.

Yael Sherer, the Director of One of One, and a sexual violence advocate, was more pessimistic about how the British girl’s rape investigation would have been handled if it had happened in Israel.  In the end  Sherer believes Israel is just as bad as Cyprus. “The police here often tell you that you have no case, that it’s your word against his, that maybe you misinterpreted things, that there’s not enough proof,” she says. “There’s no magic place on Earth where police believe the victims automatically — it just doesn’t exist.”

It seems that although Israel has good laws, the police still don’t believe that victims are telling the truth. Nevertheless, Israel seems to be way ahead of us when it comes to the law and sexual violence.

 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2019

Jamie Doran, a filmmaker who has won multiple Emmy awards, in an article he wrote in the Cyprus Mail announces that he is doing a documentary about the British girl and her trial. I look forward to seeing it when it comes out.

 

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2019

Court reconvened on November 15, 2019. An expert witness for the defense presented testimony that the girl could not have written the confession, that it was too full of errors. The British girl is not illiterate and has received offers from three universities. Court is to reconvene on November 28, 2019, Thanksgiving Day in the US.

 

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2019

The judge rules against the evidence presented by the British girl’s defence. According to the Independent Newspaper, he said, “The statement was not taken under pressure or improper conditions. The statement was given wilfully. I don’t find anything suspicious.”

“He dismissed evidence from a Manchester University language specialist who claimed a native English speaker could not have written the retraction statement and a UK psychologist who argued the young woman had been experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.”

 

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2019

The first full description of what happened that night. This is her testimony in court, in her own words.

“She said that she had initially agreed to have sex with one of the Israelis, a 21-year-old named Sam whom she had met in Ayia Napa, where she was embarking on a working holiday.
But his friends then allegedly barged into the room and joined in without her consent.
‘I told them they had to go. Sam told me to lie on the bed and … put his knees on my shoulders.’
‘There was a lot of shouting in Hebrew. I couldn’t breathe. I tried to throw my head about and his friends were coming in all shouting and jeering.’
‘I tried to cross my legs. I was trying to throw my arms about. I don’t know how many of them raped me. I couldn’t see.’
The Israelis were shouting and arguing in Hebrew, she told the court.
‘Sam still had his knees of my shoulders. I was gasping for air. I managed to get away and I was shouting and screaming. I was in an absolute state. I ran downstairs out of the room.’
She fled the hotel and went to a clinic, where she was examined by doctors. The police were then called.
‘I was so scared that I passed out twice. I couldn’t sit upright in the police car.’
The court has previously heard from a witness that the Israeli teenagers had targeted the teenager, bragging that they were going to ‘do orgies” with her.’

Believe her. It happened.

 

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2019

I had wondered about forensic evidence.

According to a local Cyprus newspaper, Marios Matsakis, an expert forensic pathologist, testified for the defence that he disagrees with Sophocles Sophocleous, the state pathologist, that the bruises on the girl’s body were slight.

He quoted from Forensic Pathology by Dominic and Vincent DeMaio that “In an analysis of 451 rape victims examined at the Parkland Hospital in Dallas only 34 percent showed any evidence of trauma (abrasions, contusions, lacerations).”

Matsakis also pointed out that no examination had been done on the girl’s upper body where the principal rapist had held her down by kneeling on her.

While Matsakis was being cross-examined, the state prosecutor, Adam Demosthenous, showed him the Israeli rapist’s medical reports. After the cross-examination, Matsakis told Cyprus Mail:

“I didn’t see these reports before. Thanks to the fact that the prosecutor showed them to me, I found out that three of these men had some injuries. This helps my case. I said to him, ‘thank you very much’. I used them to my advantage.”

This is curious. It would seem that the prosecutor is helping the defence. Is this a break in the solid blue police/prosecutor/judge wall that has existed up until now?

Matsakis also testified to DNA evidence from four suspects was found on the girl’s body, her clothes, a condom and on bed sheets.

 

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2019

According to an article in KNews, the English edition of the Kathimerini News, a local Cypriot newspaper, Marios Matsakis, expert forensic pathologist for the defense, said “The woman was obviously in bad shape with a large number of external injuries, most of which were recent, some may have been caused through pressure by hand, and there was liquid blood in the lady’s vagina. This causes bells to go off in my head, as a forensic examiner, and it is my position that these details are consistent with rape.”

 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2019

According to the Cyprus Mail, the court heard closing arguments and the two sides submitted their final arguments in writing.

If found guilty of the charge of public mischief, the British teen faces a sentence of one year and/or a fine of €1,700.

The final verdict will be delivered on December 30, 2019.

 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2019

A Telegraph article reports that a Scandinavian woman had a similar experience as the the British girl 20 years ago. The Scandinavian woman said that when she reported to the police that she had been raped by two men, she was browbeaten by the police into making a retraction. The police asked her why anyone would rape when you can get it for free. They accused her of making up the rape so she could get her vacation paid for by insurance. This is a weird aside and not important on it’s own. If more women come forward, it might mean something.

 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2019

BBC interviews the British girl’s mother using the alias “Jenny” to protect her identity. Jenny complained bitterly that the British Embassy has not been as supportive as it might be. She told BBC news that,

“The hardest part of it is being absolutely sure your daughter is telling the truth and then to see a group of men in court say that she’s lying.”

Jenny says that her daughter already had post-traumatic stress disorder and that a psychological assessment found that the symptoms are “much, much worse” since the rape.

“She sees things, she hears things and is jumpy and uncertain about whether things are there or not.”

Jenny said that they are optimistic but they were also “preparing for the worst.”

 

MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2019

The judge in the case, Judge Michalis Papathanasiou, found the British girl guilty of the charge of Malicious Mischief. He said she did not make a good impression on the court and that “She was never clear on what happened. She was not stating the truth and I reject the version she gave.”

According to Michael Polak, the girl’s British lawyer, the judge insists that the case is about the girl’s alleged lie, not about whether a rape happened or not. Logically to me, the two issues, the rape and the retraction of the rape, cannot be separated. If she is guilty of not telling the truth about the rape then it’s of utmost importance whether or not a rape took place. From testimony given at the trial, I think the fact of a rape was proven. Judge Papathanasiou refuses to look at whether a rape occurred and this seems ultimately illogical. From the little I know about the legal system here in America, logic often doesn’t figure into it meaning law and precedent are used as criteria for guilt or innocence rather than logic.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. There was apparently no law that required the police to videotape or even audio record the girl’s confession. I presume that keeping a rape victim alone in an interrogation room from 8pm in the evening until 2am in the morning is also legal. Ditto is the legality of big uniformed guys browbeating an emotional girl. They got their confession. They got what they wanted. They did their job. The Israelis are free and getting freer by the minute. Business opportunities with Israel are of paramount importance right now. The British girl is a scapegoat for a crime committed against her. This is a typical outcome for a traditional patriarchal society which it appears that Cyprus most definitely is.

There was a protest at the trial by a Cypriot group, Network Against Violence Toward Women. One of the organizers, Zelia Gregorion, a professor at the University of Cyprus, commented that authorities are not sensitized about gender issues. She commented that the British girl’s rape case “takes place at a very significant time when Cyprus is trying to reinvent its relationship with Israel both economically and as a partner in defence.” That sounds like an excellent assessment of what might have happened. I had thought that money might have been more directly involved. I’m not saying that is what happened. I only want to be aware of that possibility. It is additionally curious that Judge Papathanasiou had earlier
“requested that protesters remove ‘gagging’ masks painted with the image of sewed lips they were wearing in support of the young Briton.” Gregorian commented that it was extraordinary that “the court felt threatened by this piece of cloth and should demand that we remove it, or risk being arrested for contempt.”

The girl’s sentencing will be held on January 7, 2020. She is expected to spend a year in jail and pay a fine of 1,700 euros.

Defense expect to appeal the case first to the Supreme Court of  Cyprus and, if needed, to the Court of European Human Rights. This could take up to four years, says defence counsel, Michael Polak.