“In conclusion, the court observed that the case revealed certain biases concerning women in Cyprus which impeded the effective protection of X’s rights as a possible victim of gender-based violence,” the judges said.
The Briton had resorted to the continent’s highest human rights body after the country’s attorney general, the island’s top legal authority, rejected her lawyers’ request to open a new inquiry with external investigators who could consider the rape complaint “fairly and dispassionately”.
A British woman who alleges she was gang raped in Ayia Napa has won a “monumental victory” over Cypriot authorities after the European court of human rights (ECHR) ruled they did not properly investigate.
The Strasbourg-based court, which referred to the Briton as “X” in its judgment, said “the Cypriot authorities failed in their obligation to effectively investigate the applicant’s complaint of rape and to adopt a victim‑sensitive approach when doing so”.
Activists in both countries, who gathered outside the courts as legal proceedings unfolded, said that the Briton had not only fallen victim to a macho culture but the desire of the two eastern Mediterranean nations to maintain close diplomatic ties.
