Ayia Napa British victim in Cyprus sentenced for false rape claim

Ayia Napa (QNN)- The British teenager, who filed a suit against Israeli young men for allegedly gang-raping her, has been handed a four-month suspended jail sentence on Tuesday.
Her sentence was suspended for three years, and she has been ordered to pay €148 (£125) in legal fees. Lawyer Lewis Power told reporters outside the court that the sentence would be suspended for three years.
Women’s rights groups protested outside court ahead of the sentencing.
As soon as she arrived, the young girl embraced her mother as chants of “We believe you,” and “No means no,” filtered into the courtroom from the protest outside.
The teenager’s mother shouted “she’s coming home” to the group following sentencing, and told reporters she felt “relieved”.
Addressing the crowd, the teenager’s mother said: “I just want to thank each and every one of you for turning up today, having belief, having faith and making sure we get justice.”
In court, Judge Michalis Papathanasiou told the teenager he was giving her a “second chance”.
Speaking at sentencing, Judge Papathanasiou blamed the girl, who has been in custody since last July. He said: “What she did was very serious. Twelve young people were arrested and deprived of their liberty for ten days.”
Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Famagusta District Court in Paralimni, Cyprus this morning in a show of support for the woman. They were heard chanting “Stop blaming the victim”, “You are not alone”, and “Mr Judge shame on you, don’t you have a daughter too?”
The teenager said she was raped and filmed by 12 Israeli tourists on July 17 at the Pambos Napa Rocks hotel in the resort of Ayia Napa, where she was staying. But 10 days later she retracted her statement under pressure by the police, as she said.
Michael Polak, from the advocacy group Justice Abroad, previously told CNN that she had been denied legal representation, and was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
The 12 young Israelis, accused of raping a British tourist in Cyprus, have been all released back in July. When they arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, they celebrated their release and stated they regretted nothing. They opened champagne bottles and chanted “Am Yisrael Chai” (the people of Israel lives) as well as “the Brit is a whore.”
The suspects’ mistreatment of the girl and the unlimited support by Israeli media even before any police report or court judgment sparked controversy on social media.
Even before any police report, Israeli journalist Emily Amrousi rushed to conclude that the rape never happened because simply her Zionism leads her to “automatically” disbelieve reports of Israelis suspected of rape!
In an interview with Israeli media, one of the suspects, who was watching the alleged rape from another room, answered to a question about the reason why he didn’t join the suspects saying that “it’s not the kind of stuff he likes” because the girl “isn’t Jewish”.
Another suspect, who is a football player, taunted the young girl as she was freed today and said: ‘I hope she has learned her lesson’, according to the Daily Mail.
The girl was in a consensual relationship with the semi-pro footballer Shimon Yusufov, but he held her down while she was raped by a gang of 12 who also filmed it on their mobile phones in a hotel room.