Men cleared of Ayia Napa rape of Brit girl, 19, should ‘be prosecuted for posting sex video’
LAWYERS have called for the 12 Israelis cleared of raping a British teenager to be prosecuted for posting a sex video on the internet.
The Israelis, aged between 16 and 20, were released from custody last month in Ayia Napa after their lawyers supplied video of the woman, 19, having sex with three of the men.
The woman had told police she had been raped by 12 men while she was on holiday in Cyprus but the authorities said the grainy video evidence disproved her allegations that she had been pinned down, raped and slapped.
While the Israelis were set free the woman is still in custody facing a charge of public mischief and could be jailed for up to a year if she is found guilty.
A 34-second video was leaked to the website Pornhub as well as Israeli media which legal experts say was an act of “revenge porn”.
Under UK law revenge porn is “the sharing of private, sexual materials, either photos or videos, of another person without their consent and with the purpose of causing embarrassment or distress.”
It is also banned under EU law as well.
Andreas Pittadjis, the woman’s former lawyer, told : “These were supposed to be private… and now the whole world has seen them.
“The circulation of this video is much more serious than the charges the girl faces and yet nobody is doing anything about it.”
As well as explicit sex being shown in the footage the authorities and local media say the men also make derogatory comments about the woman in Hebrew as they engaged in sex.
A source told the paper: “You can hear one of the boys saying in Hebrew, ‘You’re my whore, say you are my whore.’ She doesn’t understand and asks what they are saying and one replies in English, ‘We are saying you’re sexy’. It is not very nice. It’s not how men should act.”
The British woman and her family have claimed that she was pressured to withdraw her complaint by detectives, who threatened to arrest her friends for “conspiracy” if she did not comply.
The teenager said that officers then dictated a statement in which she admitted faking allegations — and she reluctantly signed only because she was exhausted after eight hours at the police station.
None of the interviews were recorded — a basic requirement under UK law.
The lawyer now representing her, British barrister Michael Polak, from the campaign group Justice Abroad said: “The confession was obtained under oppression given the threats made.
"She was not cautioned and was not given access to a lawyer as was her right under the European Convention on Human rights.
“Further, the teenager was not told she could leave the police station nor given the option of leaving at any point.
“It is also understood that unfortunately none of the proceedings at the Cypriot police station were recorded.”
While only a few EU countries have actually outlawed revenge porn act a legal expert has said that privacy laws apply right across EU countries.
Israel outlawed revenge porn in 2014.
The expert said: “Privacy laws are applicable across Europe and the 12 Israelis should find themselves legally accountable for breaching those codes while in Cyprus, an EU member state.”
When the Israelis returned home they were seen celebrating at Ben Gurion airport drinking champagne and cries of “The Brit is a whore” could be heard.
Jewish Chronicle columnist Miriam Shaviv described the group as “scumbags who treated a woman like a piece of meat.”
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Hen Artzi-Sror, a columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth, said: “So what we have here is a group of teenage boys, who it turns out are not rapists, just the type of boys who would engage in group sex with a drunk girl, film it without her permission and then send it around to their friends. There’s no doubt, they are obviously good boys.”
The British woman is due to appear in court on August 19.
A defamation lawsuit against her is due to be filed by the Israeli’s lawyers.
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