Appeal Hearing Held at Cyprus Supreme Court for Teenager Found Guilty of Public Mischief After Reporting Group Rape in Cyprus
Appeal Hearing Held at Cyprus Supreme Court for Teenager Found Guilty of Public Mischief After Reporting Group Rape in Cyprus
Justice Abroad is assisting the British teenager and her family in their pursuit of justice.
Today on Thursday 16 September 2021, the appeal hearing was held in the Supreme Court of Cyprus in Nicosia.
During the hearing the defence team assembled by Justice Abroad expanded on the detailed 154-page skeleton argument to explain to the Court why the conviction was unsafe.
The team assembled by Justice Abroad comprised of Lewis Power QC, a top barrister from Church Court Chambers at the English Bar of the senior rank of Queen’s Counsel, Cypriot lawyer Nicoletta Charalambidou, an experienced human rights advocate, and Ritsa Pekri, a criminal law expert.
Justice Abroad’s Michael Polak is co-ordinating the appeal against the teenager’s conviction. The main grounds of appeal relied upon by the defence include that
· The retraction statement should not have been admitted in the trial proceedings
This submission was made on the basis that the retraction statement was obtained after the Defendant has been detained in the Police station for almost 7 hours, without a lawyer, and without a translator. Further, the retraction statement was unreliable and should have been excluded because of the PTSD suffered by the Defendant, as set out in evidence by Dr Christine Tizzard a specialist psychologist, the messages exhibited by the Defendant demonstrate that she was being placed under intense pressure to retract the rape allegation, and that the evidence of forensic linguist Dr Andrea Nini that it is highly unlikely that the retraction statement contained the words of the teenager.
· The trial judge failed to properly direct himself as to the elements of the offence of public mischief and failed to consider each element of the offence before convicting the teenager
In this regard, it was submitted that the Judge at the District Court did not provide the Defendant with a fair hearing and closed his mind to an essential element of the offence by continuously shouting ‘this is not a rape trial, I don’t want to hear evidence about rape’ as well as preventing the Defence team from properly examining and putting forward evidence which supported the teenager’s account that a rape had taken place as described, and he therefore failed to properly apply the burden and standard of proof by failing to require the prosecution to prove each element of the offence beyond reasonable doubt, and started with a preconceived idea that the accused had committed the offence charged before hearing all of the evidence in the trial.
Further arguments submitted at appeal included:
· The total dismissal by the trial judge of all defence expert evidence for no good reason including evidence of the Pathologist, Marios Matsakis, the Forensic linguist Dr Andrea Nini, and the psychologist Dr Christine Tizzard;
· The failure of the trial Court to properly consider the evidence before it, including DNA evidence of three of the Israeli youths on a condom which was also found with blood on it, and the evidence from two English youths and the Doctor at the hotel about the state of the teenager when they found her on the night of the rape incident, which supports the teenager’s account of what took place;
· The omission of the trial court to take into account the prosecuting authority’s failure to conduct a proper investigation into the rape; and
· The Court’s failure to take into account the choice of the prosecuting authority not to adduce evidence to prove what happened on the night of the rape in the hotel room in that they failed to call the Israeli youths to give evidence. Therefore, the Court was left with only the teenager’s testimony about what happened in that room and should not have found to the criminal standard, beyond reasonable doubt, that she lied about being raped as a consequence.
Justice Abroad’s Michael Polak stated the following:
‘This case is a seminal one for the protection of human rights in Cyprus as well as the treatment of those who report sexual offences. It is of the utmost importance for the woman involved to have her unjust conviction overturned, as a conviction such as this can prevent her from applying for certain jobs and is a constant reminder of what happened to her.
The legal principles, as set out in the common law and European provisions, are clear that an unambiguous waiver of the right to a lawyer is required before a court should rely on evidence obtained from an individual given without legal assistance. No such waiver existed in this case.
Further, it is clear that a trial court must consider each element of a criminal offences before deciding if each element is proven beyond reasonable doubt. By refusing to hear evidence which went to show that a rape took place and by shouting at our female Cypriot lawyers ‘This is not a Rape trial’ each time they sought to introduce such evidence the trial judge failed to uphold these basic principles.
Without wanting to prejudge the decision of the Supreme Court, we were pleased with how the proceedings went and how the justices engaged with our arguments and are hoping for a positive result.
Lewis Power QC stated
Whilst we don’t wish to pre-empt the decision of the Supreme Court, this young woman’s story has reverberated around the world since it hit the headlines in 2019.
It has been both shocking and distressing and has for her been deeply harrowing, humiliating and personally intrusive.
Yet she has risen above this with grit and determination and has courageously resolved to continue to fight this case to the end where she believes that justice will be done.
We also believe that ultimately justice will be achieved but through a careful scrutiny of both the evidence and adherence to the rule of law
Today, through we hope the Supreme Court of Cyprus, this girl can free herself from the shackles of an unjust conviction which has tarnished her young life
The teenager, her family, and the legal team would like to convey their thanks to all that have supported the campaign for justice so far and for the generous donations to the Go Fund Me fund (www.gofundme.com/f/Help-Teen-Victim-Get-Justice-In-Cyprus)
Justice Abroad is happy to deal with any enquiries about the case by email: Contact@JusticeAbroad.co.uk
Notes to Editors
Justice Abroad, www.justiceabroad.co.uk has been set up to help those trying to find their way through foreign justice systems with all the associated hurdles that presents. To help such families with these dilemmas and many more, Michael Polak, a barrister with an international practice focussed on the assistance of foreign nationals in trouble around the world set up Justice Abroad.
Lewis Power QC is a barrister who was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1990 and achieved the senior rank of Queen’s Counsel (QC) in 2011. He has a strong reputation for fighting difficult cases at trial and advising and advocating in matters with international and cross-jurisdictional elements.
Nicoletta Charalambidou is human rights lawyer with an expertise on European Union law and with a particular interest in victims and suspects rights in criminal procedures and discrimination in the administration of justice. She is also a member to the Legal Experts Advisory Panel of Fair Trials.