Section:GDN 1N PaGe:12 Edition Date:190807 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/8/2019 19:39 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Wednesday 7 August 2019
(^12) National
British teenager ‘was forced
to retract rape complaint’
Helena Smith
Nicosia
A British teenager facing trial in Cyprus
on charges of falsely claiming she was
gang-raped by 12 Israelis while on
holiday in Ayia Napa says local police
forced her to retract the allegations.
The 19-year-old, who is due to
attend a plea hearing in Paralimni ,
close to the party resort, today,
insists she was coerced into signing a
con fession revoking the criminal com-
plaint. After the retraction her alleged
assailants, aged 15 to 18, were released
from custody and return ed home.
The young woman, who cannot be
identifi ed unless she if found guilty,
was arrested last week and charged
with “public mischief ” , an off ence that
carries a jail sentence of up to a year.
But the legal aid group Justice
Abroad, which is assisting the teenager,
who has since been remanded in Nico-
sia prison, denied she had voluntarily
recanted the rape allegation.
In a statement Michael Polak, a
her to write the confession, despite her
stating that she did not want to.
“The confession was obtained
under oppression given the threats
made, that she was not cautioned, and
that she was not given access to a law-
yer as was her right under the Cypriot
constitution and European conven-
tion on human rights.”
Before being formally charged, at
2.30am , after eight hours of ques-
tioning, the teenager had sent text
messages to friends stating that police
British barrister with the organisa-
tion, said that despite requests, and
in contravention of the European con-
vention o n human rights, the woman
had been refused legal representation.
None of the proceedings conducted
by Cypriot police were recorded, either
aurally or by video, he said.
“What in fact occurred, was that
the teenager was taken to the police
station, where she was asked to
provide a further statement in regard
to the rape allegations,” said Polak.
“After providing a further written
statement, the police offi cer told her
that he believed that she was lying
about the allegations and that he
wanted to help her.
“He told her to write a confes-
sion and that if she did not do so, he
would arrest her friends in Cyprus for
conspiracy.”
The purported confession was then
dictated to her, the barrister said.
Investigators had made clear that if
she did not sign she would be arrested;
if she did, she could return to her hotel.
“Further pressure was placed upon
In brief
Crime
Arrests after seizure of
heroin worth £40m
Police
Met seeks attackers of
offi cer at Robinson rally
Crime
Joy Division singer’s
grave violated again
Hundreds of kilograms of heroin,
worth up to £40 m, have been
found hidden under towels and
bathrobes in a shipping container in
Felixstowe, Suff olk.
The drugs seizure is one of the
UK’s largest and police said several
suspects had been arrested.
Intelligence led to UK, Dutch and
Belgian police tracking a container
suspected of carrying a large drugs
shipment en route to Antwerp,
according to the National Crime
Agency (NCA). The container is
The Metropolitan police have
circulated images of two men they
are seeking in connection with
an assault on an offi cer who was
dragged to the ground and kicked
in the head during a protest by
supporters of Tommy Robinson.
The offi cer, a medic, was
attacked when supporters of
Robinson, a right wing activist (real
name, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon)
who was jailed, tried to breach a
police cordon and attack counter-
protesters during the demonstration
on Saturday afternoon , police said.
The male offi cer was not seriously
hurt and later returned to duty.
Video footage on social media
appeared to show the moment he
was dragged to the ground and
A stone has been stolen from the
grave of the Joy Division frontman
Ian Curtis.
A fan visiting the grave noticed
that a stone had been removed from
the plot at Maccles fi eld cemetery.
Staff at the cemetery confi rmed
to Cheshire Live : “A rare mowing
stone has been taken or removed,
we believe over the weekend. It is
about a square foot with a hole for
a fl oral tribute, it is purely there for
aesthetics, there is no inscription ...
We have since replaced the stone.”
The original memorial stone with
the inscription “Love will tear us
apart”, referencing Joy Division’s
biggest hit , was stolen in 2008 – its
replacement is now cemented in
place. Ben Beaumont-Thomas
▲ The Met issued images of the men
wanted after the assault on an offi cer
believed to have begun its sea
voyage in Oman, stopping in various
locations before the ship docked in
Felixstowe on 1 August.
The next day offi cers from Border
Force and the NCA removed a
container in which about 398kg of
heroin was concealed under the
towels and bathrobes.
The heroin was removed and the
container returned to the vessel,
which carried on to Antwerp.
On arrival, the container was
collected by lorry and taken to
Rotterdam – all the time under
police surveillance.
On Monday, as suspects took
steps to unload the contents, Dutch
police made two arrests. At the same
time the NCA arrested a man from
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, who is
still being questioned.
The drugs would be worth £9 m at
wholesale, and at least £40 m on the
street, the NCA said. PA Medi a
surrounded. The incident was also
captured on his camera. Police are
asking for help to identify two men
in connection with the attack.
Robinson, 36, from Luton was
given a nine-month sentence at the
Old Bailey in July, after being found
guilty of contempt of court.
He had fi lmed defendants in a
criminal trial , accused of sexual
exploitation of young girls, and
live streamed it in breach of a
reporting ban. Damien Gayle
were preventing her from contact with
anyone else, he said. “She was not told
that she could leave the police station
nor given the option of leaving at any
point,” Polak added.
A police spokesman, Christos
Andreou, called the accusations
“baseless”. “The Cypriot police insist
that the 19-year-old Briton freely
asked to make a second deposition in
which she retracted everything that
she had claimed in the fi rst she had
made,” he said.
Andreou said it was impossible for
the teenager to have conversed with
friends by text message as her mobile
phone had been taken away from her
as soon as she was arrested.
The woman’s lawyer, Andreas
Pittadjis, asked last week for the case
to be adjourned so he could gather
evidence, including a video that had
gone viral, purporting to show several
men having sex with the woman.
He told the Guardian that circul-
ation of the video clip on the internet
was “a much more serious off ence
than what my client faces”.
Cyprus has become increasingly
popular among young Israelis, with
many heading straight for Ayia Napa,
the “anything goes” resort famous for
its all-night bars, sandy beaches and
seemingly endless revelry.
However, Britons have long topped
the league tables of arrivals, with an
estimated 1.3 million holidaymakers
fl ying in from the UK every year.
‘Her confession was
obtained under
oppression given the
threats made ...
she was not given
access to a lawyer’
Michael Polak
Barrister, Justice Abroad
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