Cyprus' law enforcement authorities failed to live up to their obligation to thoroughly and effectively investigate a British teenager's claims that she had been gang-raped by a group of Israelis while on a 2019 vacation in a popular resort town, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday.
In its ruling released Thursday, the court placed particular weight on the failure of the authorities to determine whether the woman - who was 18 at the time of the alleged rape - had ever consented to having sex with some of the suspects.
According to the ruling, the woman had told authorities she rejected the suggestion of having sex with multiple partners. However, the suspects persisted in entering the hotel room where the alleged rape took place, disregarding her pleas for them to leave.
Even though the woman was having sex with an Israeli friend of the suspects in that hotel room at the time, the court said investigators didn't establish whether the suspects had secured her consent. According to testimony, some of them only assumed they would because of her previous behavior.