In November 2019, two former Attorneys General (Alekos Markides and Petros Clerides) and a former Justice Minister (Kypros Chrysostomides) sent a letter to the then Attorney General (Costas Clerides) requesting the termination of prosecution against a 19-year-old British woman.
She had reported being raped by 13 Israeli men, but subsequently withdrew her complaint after prolonged and repeated interrogations, while videos circulated online that publicly humiliated her.
Following the withdrawal of her complaint, the young woman was charged with causing public mischief, sent to prison, and after her release was prohibited from leaving Cyprus until her trial.
Her mother dropped everything to come to Cyprus to support her daughter, and the family suffered financial hardship to help the 19-year-old whose life was upended by youthful folly that ended as it did.
She was dragged through proceedings for months and photographed trying to hide her face, while the presence of special police forces suggested she was being treated like a terrorist. Meanwhile, the Israeli men returned to their country where they were welcomed as heroes.
“How great is the damage suffered by the state to show such harshness towards a girl who, in some way at least, was raped and even publicly?” we asked at the time.
Markides, Chrysostomides and Clerides wrote to the prosecutor: “We believe that the Republic of Cyprus is being internationally exposed, and the entire prosecution and detention of the young woman, without the right to leave Cyprus even on bail, for a not-so-serious crime, borders on degrading and perhaps inhumane treatment… We believe she has suffered enormous punishment and, in our humble opinion, it would be right to terminate the entire prosecution in the public interest”. The prosecutor, however, was unyielding.
And now, six years later, we are still dealing with the case and hearing the European Court rule – not on whether the girl was raped by the Israelis – but by the Cypriot authorities who, yes, humiliated and abused her.
“The case,” the European Court of Human Rights states, “was characterised by a series of deficiencies by the investigative authorities, the prosecution and the court of first instance… The credibility of the young woman appears to have been assessed through biased gender stereotypes… Prejudices regarding women prevented the protection of the applicant’s rights as a victim of gender-based violence, and if not reversed, there is a risk of creating a background of impunity, discouraging victims’ trust in the criminal justice system, despite the existence of a satisfactory framework”.
The prosecutor claimed he wanted to protect the public from the damage caused by the woman’s allegedly false complaint.
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