Several Israeli tourists who were falsely accused of rape by a 19-year-old British woman in the holiday resort of Ayia Napa in Cyprus have threatened to sue her for millions of pounds.
One of the men, Yona Golub, told the Times of Israel: “We will sue her for the anguish caused and for libel. I am walking in the street and people are calling me a rapist.”
An Israeli lawyer, based in Cyprus, Yaniv Habari told AFP his clients would "pursue legal action against the person behind the false accusations that led to them being unjustly detained. We will claim damages for the suffering of our clients."
The British teenager filed a police complaint on 10 July against a dozen Israelis, ranging in age from 15 to 18, who were staying at the Pambos Napa Rocks Hotel.
She claimed she was held down and beaten while they took it in turns to rape her.
In the report she wrote: “I saw at least 12 faces…for an hour or so, one after the other. The friends I did not know raped me, some wore a condom, and some didn’t. They hurt my whole body… one of them held me down. After they let me go I fainted, and then I ran out of the room, met friends and they took me half-naked to the clinic.”
The young woman has since reportedly admitted she had consensual sex with three of the men and filed the report in anger because of the way they threw her out of their room after the encounter.
On Monday, 29 July, she appeared in court in Paralimni, near Ayia Napa, where she faces charges linked to her police report.
Twelve Israeli youths were arrested on 12 July but all have now been released and have returned home.
The Times of Israel reported seven of the teenagers popped champagne bottles and chanted: “The Brit is a whore” on their arrival at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Sunday, 28 July.
Israeli newspaper columnist Hen Artzi-Sror wrote sarcastically: “So what we have here is a group of teenage boys, who it turns out are not rapists, just the type of boys who would engage in group sex with a drunk girl, film it without her permission and then send it around to their friends. There’s no doubt, they are obviously good boys.”
Ayia Napa is a magnet for younger tourists attracted by its reputation as a party town surrounded by beaches.
Around 1.3 million British tourists travel to Cyprus every year but nearby Israel has recently become an increasing source of holidaymakers.
The Mayor of Ayia Napa, Yiannis Karousos, has ordered the installation of CCTV cameras in the resort “because tourists don’t just have to be safe, they have to feel they are safe.”