Five Israeli men acquitted of rape charge in Cyprus

Five Israeli men were acquitted of all charges on Monday at a Cyprus court over the alleged gang rape of a 20-year-old British woman.

Famagusta criminal court cleared the five defendants of two counts of rape, one count of sexual abuse, one count of forced sexual intercourse, one count of sexual harassment, and one count of abduction.

She told police she was sexually assaulted and raped by five Israeli nationals in September 2023. The five defendants were Israeli men between the ages of 19 and 20 who come from the town of Majd al-Krum.

The trial began in October 2023 at Famagusta criminal court, just north of Ayia Napa, where the British woman reported the attack happened.

They denied all charges.

In its decision, the court said the woman’s testimony was not credible, had inconsistencies and weaknesses where it concerned identifying individuals and the actions they were accused of.

The panel of three judges specified misidentification was “not abnormal” in such circumstances but ruled her testimony had several contradictions.

The court ruled her statement where she claimed she was dragged from a party of 100 people was not convincing, as a friend testified seeing her simply go upstairs to a room with another person.

While lab tests showed the woman had consumed significant amounts of alcohol and was also under the influence of narcotics (MDA and MDMA), the court ruled this was not to a degree that would deprive her of the ability to consent to sex – since she herself said she felt only “slightly dizzy” at the time.

The court also determined that her claim that she shouted for help during the alleged gang rape was not convincing as two individuals from the adjacent room said they heard nothing.

It specified that the woman told a police officer that she had non consensual sex with one person, but in subsequent statements changed it to two.

The judges said in her first statement, she reported sexual acts were carried out by three individuals against her while identifying five men in the room. In her subsequent statement she reported five men of carrying out sexual acts.

The court also concluded it could not be safely determined whether abrasions found on the woman’s body were not sustained earlier and may have been a result of consensual intercourse.

Part of the trial was held behind closed doors.