Tuesday, 19 Nov 2024

UK foreign secretary 'concerned' over jailing for 'rape lie'

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has expressed “serious concern” about the potential for a miscarriage of justice after a court in Cyprus convicted a British teenager of lying about being gang-raped on holiday.

He will raise the case with the Cypriot authorities after the 19-year-old, who told police she was raped by up to 12 Israeli youths in her hotel room, was left facing up to a year in jail while her alleged attackers were allowed to return home.

The woman withdrew her complaint two weeks after the alleged incident, but says she was “forced” to do so by police who left her “scared for my life” and who did not record the interview.

The case has raised questions about the island’s treatment of victims of sexual assault, with protesters claiming the Cypriot authorities “always find a reason not to believe women who claim they have been raped”.

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The teenager’s mother told ‘ITV News’: “I find myself kind of unable to believe the violations of human rights she has experienced throughout the whole affair.”

She described the verdict as “absolutely astonishing” and said her daughter was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and needed to get back to the UK to be treated.

A campaign has been launched online to encourage tourists to boycott Cyprus on the grounds that it is “not safe for women” to go there.

In a hardening of the Foreign Office’s stance on the case, sources said “all options are on the table” if there appears to be a miscarriage of justice.

Mr Raab, a former lawyer, is understood to have followed the case closely and “takes issues of access to justice extremely seriously,” sources said.

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