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Supreme Court upholds rape acquittal

supreme court
The supreme court

The Republic’s appeal against the acquittal of two men accused of raping a Welsh tourist in Cyprus in 2016, was unanimously rejected by the Supreme Court.

The two defendants faced a joint indictment on counts of rape, abduction, sexual exploitation and conspiracy to commit a crime.

According to the case, the woman had gone to a nightclub with her friends in Ayia Napa where she met the two defendants. She was later unable to locate the accommodation that she was staying in with a friend – at which point the two defendants offered to drive her there.

She accepted their offer but was instead taken to a construction site which is where the alleged rape took place. Afterwards, she ran towards the sea to try and hide, later finding two fishermen whom she asked for help and who called the police.

The criminal court, by majority, concluded that her testimony was untrue and unreliable. It was deemed that contradictions in her testimony, as well as her statements conflicting with another person’s statement, greatly undermined her allegations.

The court also concluded that some of her basic positions were refuted by scientific testimony.

On that basis, the two defendants were acquitted of the charges against them.

But the Republic appealed the verdict, saying that there was no reasonable ground upon which the court could establish the facts necessary for declaring her testimony to be untrue. The Supreme Court rejected this argument and upheld the criminal court’s decision.

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