The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled unanimously on Thursday that Cyprus violated the rights of a British woman who alleged she was gang-raped in Ayia Napa in 2019, citing “prejudicial gender stereotypes and victim-blaming attitudes” in the investigation.
The Strasbourg-based court found violations of Article 3 (lack of effective investigation) and Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights in the case brought by the woman.
The applicant, who was 18 at the time, had accused several Israeli nationals of gang-raping her in July 2019. After 10 days of investigation and following lengthy questioning late into the night, she retracted her allegations, was immediately prosecuted for public mischief and convicted at first instance.
The Cyprus Supreme Court later acquitted her on appeal, noting various failures in the investigative process of her rape allegation.
The ECHR awarded the woman 20,000 euros in damages and 5,000 euros for costs and expenses.
“The Court observed that Cyprus had a legislative framework to protect the rights of victims of sexual violence,” the ECHR said in its judgment. “Nevertheless, the case had been marked by a series of shortcomings by the investigative authorities, the prosecutorial authorities and the first instance court.”
Without ruling on the guilt of the suspects, the ECHR identified numerous flaws in the investigation, including a failure to examine whether there had been consent.
The court noted that authorities overlooked that the woman had been drinking and that traces of cocaine had been found in her urine, which could have affected her capacity to consent.
“It appeared that the authorities’ disinclination to pursue the investigation further or to initiate criminal proceedings had been based on X’s sexual liberty and conduct,” the ECHR said.
“Her credibility appears to have been assessed through prejudicial gender stereotypes and victim-blaming attitudes. Because she had allegedly participated in group sexual activities before, it seemed to be taken for granted that she would not have refused to do so on the day of the alleged rape.”
The ECHR also highlighted that decisions by Cypriot authorities to discontinue the investigation failed to consider the psychological effect the alleged rape might have had on the woman or whether she might still have been under the influence of substances.
The woman, a foreigner alone in Cyprus, was only referred to a psychologist two days after the alleged gang-rape and was interviewed without a lawyer, psychologist, or social welfare services present, the court noted.
After six hours of questioning on July 27, 2019, the woman retracted her complaint after 1:15 a.m. She maintained that the long and repeated interviews had led her to do so.
“In the Court’s view, the numerous times X had had to repeat what had happened to the authorities, and their failure to adopt a victim-sensitive approach, constituted evidence of re-victimisation,” the judgment stated.
The court concluded that the case “revealed certain biases concerning women in Cyprus which impeded the effective protection of X’s rights as a possible victim of gender-based violence.”
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