INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A teenager who was found guilty of lying about being gang-raped in Cyprus has launched an appeal against her conviction.The 19-year-old
woman had claimed she was assaulted by up to 12 Israeli tourists while on holiday in Ayia Napa last July - but was charged herself after
signing a retraction statement.Last week, a judge gave her a four-month jail term - suspended for three years - enabling her to fly home to
Derbyshire.Image:Protesters supported the woman outside courtThe teenager maintains she was raped - and she has accused Cypriot police of
pressuring her to change her story.In the grounds for appeal against the public mischief conviction, submitted on Thursday to the Supreme
Court of Cyprus, her lawyers claim that:Her retraction statement should not have been allowed as part of the trial as she had been detained
for nearly seven hours without a lawyer and a translator when she gave itThe statement should have been excluded from evidence as she was
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and a forensic linguist has said the words in the statement are "highly unlikely" to be
hersThe court's reliance on the retraction statement as evidence that she lied about being raped was against her right to a fair trialThe
judge did not give the teenager a fair hearing as he continuously shouted "this is not a rape trial, I don't want to hear evidence about
rape" - and prevented her team from examining evidence which supported her account of being rapedThe court did not properly consider DNA
evidence of three of the Israeli youths on a condom which also had her blood on itThe court did not properly consider evidence from two
English youths and the hotel doctor about the state of the teenager when they found her on the night of the incidentThe court failed to
explain why all prosecution witnesses were found credible but it immediately discounted evidence from all defence witnessesIt says the court
did not hear from the Israeli youths so relied only on the teenager's testimonyThe court failed to take evidence of a pathologist into
account, who said her injuries supported her statement about being gang-raped.Image:The British teenager was convicted of lying about being
gang raped in Cyprus last summerMichael Polak from Justice Abroad, which is co-ordinating her appeal, said the grounds of appeal are
"strong" and they hope proceedings will be fast so this does not hang over the teenager any longer.He added: "When the trial proceedings are
considered dispassionately, it is clear that the teenager did not receive a fair trial before the Famagusta District Court and that her
unfair treatment, and the treatment of her representatives and witness was in clear contrast to the treatment the prosecution and its
witness experienced."The conviction of the teenager not only breaches the teenagers rights under Cypriot law, but it also amounts to a
breach of Cyprus's international obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and as a member of the European Union."Her
lawyers say they are determined to take the case to the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights if the appeal is
