Three years into trial Paphos court acquits man accused of rape and kidnapping

The Paphos court on Friday acquitted a 30-year-old man accused of the rape and kidnapping of a woman.

Both the accused and the complainant are third country nationals.

The offences were alleged to have been committed in 2019 at the Paphos home of the accused.

The trial had been started in 2019 but was interrupted subject to reconvene, following replacement of one of its members who resigned.

Following the testimonies of the complainant, the accused, and a prosecution witness -a friend of the complainant- the criminal court found the complainant’s version of events did not hold up to scrutiny and had issues of reliability due to the fact that the complainant concealed key facts in her statements to police.

The facts came to light during the defendant’s cross-examination and the court determined that there was entrapment of the accused by the complainant with the aid of her boyfriend, who offered fabricated testimony at the hearing, despite being under oath.

The complainant and the witness had hatched the plan to accuse the defendant and conspired to extort money from him, the court concluded.

In its decision, the court also criticised the police for failing to thoroughly investigate allegations made by the accused, in a timely manner.

The case for the prosecution was presented by state public attorney, Andreas Hatjikyrou, while the accused was represented by criminologist Artemis Savvidou.

As a consequence of its findings, the court dismissed both charges of rape and kidnapping against the accused.