Ayia Napa: how can she be guilty?

Beyond Today

BBC

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2020

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

A British teenager has been given a four-month suspended sentence after being found guilty of lying about gang-rape in Cyprus. The 19-year-old was convicted following a trial after recanting a claim that she was raped in a hotel room in July. The woman has said Cypriot police made her falsely confess to lying about the incident at a hotel - something police have denied. Human rights groups and lawyers say she’s been failed by the Cypriot legal system. Some of the men and boys she first accused of raping her have been celebrated back in Israel where they come from. There’s a lot about this case that doesn’t make sense. In this episode BBC reporters Anna Holligan and Tom Bateman pick apart the case to try to find out what led to a sentence that has caused so much hurt and outrage. Presenter: Matthew Price Producers: Duncan Barber and Seren Jones Mixed by Emma Crowe Editor: Philly Beaumont

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:04.7	Hello, I'm Matthew Price.
0:07.3	This is Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4.
0:10.1	Every day we ask one big question about one big story.
0:14.0	Today, IANAPA. How can she be guilty?
0:25.0	Normally it's a place for fun. The sea sparkles, there's endless sunshine, there are the bars,
0:39.1	the clubs, the parties. You can hear the Mediterranean waves crashing in the distance.
0:45.0	But Anna Holligan, one of our Europe reporters, she's been working in Cyprus.
0:51.0	I'm looking out to the east.
0:53.0	I can't see Syria from here, but Syria east, south of here, Israel and Egypt, so that's
1:01.1	where we are.
1:02.1	She's been covering the case of a 19 year old woman who said that she was gang raped,
1:07.0	but who has just been sentenced because the police and a judge say she made the whole story up.
1:13.0	Now human rights groups and lawyers say she's been failed by the Cypriot legal system.
1:18.0	Her mom says she's got PTSD.
1:20.0	Some of the men and boys that she first accused of raping her have been celebrated back in Israel,
1:26.0	where they come from. There's a lot about this case that doesn't make sense, and it started when the girl who was then 18 went to Cyprus last summer.
1:34.0	This British teenager had come to IANAPA to do some holiday work.
1:37.8	It was meant to be a few months of fun before she started university.
1:41.2	She meets this Israeli guy. They start a flirtation, have a
1:44.5	holiday fling. And this is where it gets dark. One night they're in the room
1:49.8	together in the hotel. Next, it's not just her and the guy in the room a load of other
	...

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