[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] (Use google translate on source 2. Source 5 is the appeal)

The woman who was allegedly raped by a group of men in Ayia Napa, Cyprus warns visitors from visiting the place as she prepares to appeal her conviction in a new interview. Cyprus has long struggled with human trafficking and rape cases, and has one of Europe's lowest conviction rates for rape.

For those new to the case: The British woman (18 at the time) was having consensual sex with one man, while another one secretly filmed her without her consent. Then, his friends broke in, pinned the girl down and allegedly raped her. The men claim it was consensual. She claims that up to 12 of them raped her, however, you can't expect a gang rape victim to remember the exact number of her attackers. DNA evidence and footage linked 7 of them to the crime scene, not 12.

- She withdrew her accusation after being interrogated for eight hours without access to a translator or lawyer. She claims the police intimidated her into withdrawing her accusation, but the officers deny this. Why can't we verify anyone's claim? Because the cops didn't record the interrogation nor did they take notes about what she was saying. She was then thrown in jail for a month and had her passport confiscated,

- The men, who were referred to as "good lads" by their parents, were released, went home, chanted "The Brit is a whore" when landing in their home country, and then released revenge porn of the girl to the media. You know, prime "good lad" behavior. Important note: None of the videos shows her having consensual sex with multiple men. The video 4chan has been circulating is fake. It's taken from a random porn site and isn't even shot in the same hotel room. If you jumped to conclusion and assumed she is guilty over that fake video, you need to use this moment for some self-reflection. The real videos merely show her having consensual sex with one guy. In other words, the real videos are from before his friends broke in. The Cypriot media also falsely claimed that she had made rape accusations in the past and that she was a stripper.

- She was charged with "public mischief", but wasn't allowed to present evidence of her rape. The judge argued that it wasn't a rape trial. Thing is, how is she supposed to prove that she didn't lie when she isn't allowed to present evidence of her rape? Some of the evidence the judge didn't allow was the 35 bruises and scratches on her body, especially around her groin and buttocks, and a bloodied condom with the men's DNA which the incompetent police had missed. The judge, Michalis Papanasthasiou, insisted that all the bruises were the work of a jellyfish, despite the doctors telling him that he was wrong. The government's medical examiner meanwhile barely found any scratches because he didn't check her entire body and "forgot" to add basic information like height and weight in his half-page report.

No matter who's story you believe, you can't deny that the way the Cypriot police and judicial system has handled this case has been a massive joke. Even the UK foreign office, which normally stays silent on such cases, has called it "problematic".

Nor can you deny that it isn't normal, "Good boy" behavior to film a woman without her consent and then release the footage like a creep.

Whatever the case might be, the girl's warning isn't extreme: Cyprus has, as mentioned, a ridiculously low conviction rate for rape exactly because of this type of incompetence by the police and judicial system.