Rape is not a “misunderstanding” open to interpretation based on the victim’s behaviour or choices. It is always the perpetrator’s choice.
That, however, has not always been self-evident within the Cypriot justice system. Those of us with longer memories can recall case after case in which it was the victim who stood trial rather than the accused.
We remember judges ruling that there were insufficient physical signs of abuse to establish that a crime had taken place.
For years, a rape victim who trusted the police and courts enough to come forward was met with doubt, dismissal, and outright blame. She was asked what she was wearing. Why she hadn’t fought back harder. Why she’d drunk so much if she knew she might lose control. Whether her behaviour had sent the wrong signals. The questions weren’t really questions — they were a search for confirmation of what investigators already believed: that she’d been asking for it.
Last summer, Cyprus was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights over a case reported in 2011. The court found that “the state had failed to properly investigate and prosecute her complaint and had followed sexist stereotypes throughout the proceedings.” It was a damning verdict — but not a surprising one for anyone who had been paying attention.
Dozens of cases could be cited in which prejudice effectively won the case for the perpetrator.
Is anything changing? Two cases now in the public eye suggest the narrative may be shifting — permanently, one hopes.
In the first, the Court of Appeal upheld a prison sentence for a convicted rapist, treating the fact that the victim was so intoxicated she could not consent not as an alibi for the perpetrator, but as an aggravating factor. The incident occurred in 2022: the perpetrator had driven the victim to his flat and raped her while she was heavily intoxicated and drifting in and out of consciousness.
Cyprus introduced a consent-based legal definition of rape in 2020 — ahead of several European countries, including Denmark, Spain, and Greece. Under the amended legislation, a woman’s incapacity to give consent is now recognised as an aggravating circumstance. That framework protects victims and sends an unambiguous message about where responsibility lies.
Which brings us to the second case — the one currently dominating the headlines — involving the suspended mayor of Paphos, Phedon Phedonos.
The Law Office’s decision to file charges on four counts — rape, sexual abuse, and drugging a woman with intent to commit a felony or misdemeanour — carries particular weight. The allegations have yet to be proven. But the message is clear: power and influence do not shield anyone from serious scrutiny when sexual offences are alleged. A woman who placed her trust in the institutions was treated with seriousness and responsibility — something that, a decade ago when the alleged rape is said to have occurred, could not have been taken for granted.
The shift in mindset must extend beyond the police and the courts, of course. It needs to take root across society as a whole.
As Gisèle Pelicot — victim in the landmark French case — put it: the shame must change sides, and pass from the victims to the perpetrators.
