The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has delivered a rebuke to the Republic of Cyprus and the Deputy Attorney General over the handling of a rape case against a politician, which the court characterised as involving sexist victim-blaming.
The ECHR found violations of the Convention on Human Rights, identifying serious procedural omissions and reprehensible treatment of the victim by the Law Office, with particular focus on the Deputy Attorney General’s conduct.
The case concerns a complaint by N.T., a Cypriot national born in 1992 who lives in Larnaca, who applied to the ECHR arguing that the suspension of prosecution against the alleged perpetrator violated her right to effective protection from sexual violence.
The allegations made headlines in 2021, and the politician was forced to withdraw his candidacy from the DISY ballot for the parliamentary elections.
€35,470 compensation awarded
The court ruled that the Republic of Cyprus breached articles 3, 8 and 14 of the Convention and ordered compensation totalling €35,470, comprising €20,000 in damages and €15,470 in legal costs.
In 2021, N.T. reported to police that she had been raped ten years earlier when she was 18 years old by a schoolfriend, A.T. The police immediately opened an investigation and indicted her alleged aggressor.
However, the Deputy Attorney General, who until 2020 had been serving as Minister of Defence in the DISY-led government, ultimately decided to discontinue the criminal proceedings essentially based on alleged inconsistencies in the applicant’s statements and her admitting that she had “liked” A.T. and had perhaps sent him the “wrong signals”.
Prosecution suspended over credibility concerns
The ECHR ruled that this approach did not constitute objective and sensitive handling of a gender-based violence case, but rather reflected prejudices and stereotypical perceptions.
Particular emphasis was placed on the lack of specialised psychological assessment of the applicant, as well as the failure to substantially weigh conflicting testimonies. The court condemned the lack of effort to establish the facts accurately and noted that critical parameters, such as the victim’s age at the time of the alleged rape and her emotional relationship with the accused, were sidelined.
Victim-blaming attitudes
The ECHR emphasised that the assessment of the applicant’s credibility was influenced by the fact that she had expressed ambivalence and emotional attachment to the accused, an element that was not evaluated through the prism of the effects of psychological violence and trauma.
The court also criticised the use of language that betrays sexist stereotypes and may undermine victims’ confidence in the justice system.
Ruling on the Republic of Cyprus’s claims that the prosecution was suspended following objective assessment and not hastily, the court noted that the final decision was not based on the absence of evidence, but on subjective assessments about the victim’s psychological profile.
It was further noted that the applicant did not receive adequate justification for the suspension decision nor access to relevant documents.
Secondary victimisation
Relying on Articles 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment), 8 (right to respect for private life) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination), N.T. complained that the authorities failed to effectively investigate and prosecute her allegations of rape and to follow a victim-sensitive approach, exposing her to secondary victimisation and discrimination.
The ECHR concluded that the actions of the Cypriot authorities not only failed to ensure the victim’s protection, but contributed to secondary victimisation, which also constitutes a form of gender-based discrimination.
Pattern of failings
This is not the first time the ECHR has ruled against Cyprus over its handling of rape cases. On February 27, 2025, the court delivered judgment in X v. Cyprus, concerning the investigation into an alleged gang-rape of a young British woman in Ayia Napa in July 2019.
In that case, the 19-year-old British woman reported being gang-raped by 12 Israeli tourists but later retracted her statement after hours of police questioning without legal representation. She was charged with “public mischief” and received a suspended sentence, though her conviction was overturned by Cyprus’s Supreme Court in 2022. The ECHR found that “certain biases concerning women in Cyprus” had prevented effective protection of women’s rights as victims of gender-based violence.
The court ruled unanimously that Cyprus violated her rights citing “prejudicial gender stereotypes and victim-blaming attitudes” in the investigation.
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