A Cyprus court on Monday acquitted five young Israeli men who were accused of raping a British tourist at a hotel in the resort town of Ayia Napa in September 2023.
The defendants, aged 19 and 20 at the time of their arrest, had been held in custody in Nicosia for over a year and a half. The district court ordered their release but has yet to publish the full verdict.
One of the acquitted men told Ynet: “I’m the happiest person in the world. I want to thank my lawyer Nir Yaslovitzh for everything he did. I can’t describe how I feel. I spent a year and a half in prison, but now that I’ve been released, I’m forgetting everything. I want to go back to Israel — I’m a happy man.”
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In January, the court ruled that DNA evidence collected from two of the defendants was inadmissible after finding that samples had been obtained improperly. According to the ruling, police presented the tests as COVID-19 swabs.
The five were arrested after a British woman alleged they raped her following a party at the Fedrania Gardens hotel in Ayia Napa. According to her complaint, they “forced her from the pool” to a hotel room, where at least two of them allegedly assaulted her. She reported the incident immediately to hotel security and gave a detailed statement to police.
Attorney Nir Yaslovitzh, who represented two of the defendants, welcomed the decision. “I commend the district court in Cyprus for fully acquitting my clients of the serious, baseless charges brought against them, and for ordering their immediate release to Israel,” he said. “This was a brave ruling that fully rejected the complainant’s version of events and accepted my clients’ account in its entirety.”