Cyprus court hearing for Brit in false rape case postponed

Police officers escort a 19-year-old British woman, center, from the Famagusta court in town of Paralimni, Cyprus, Monday, July 29, 2019. (AP)

• Paralimni court judge Tonia Antoniou ordered the one-day postponement because the woman’s lawyer is abroad
• The woman alleged she was raped at the hotel where she and the dozen Israelis were staying

PARALIMNI: A Cyprus court on Monday postponed a custody hearing for a 19-year-old British woman, who faces a public nuisance charge after she admitted that her accusation that 12 Israeli teens raped her at a popular resort town was untrue.
Paralimni court judge Tonia Antoniou ordered the one-day postponement because the woman’s lawyer is abroad.
A lawyer standing in for the Briton’s attorney said more time is needed to pour through the police’s extensive probe into the case.
The woman will remain in police custody until Tuesday’s court appearance because she poses a flight risk, the state-run Cyprus News Agency reported.
A throng of foreign and local journalists surrounded the woman who covered her face with a sweater from the moment she stepped out of the police vehicle that brought her to the courthouse.
Cyprus police on Sunday freed the remaining seven of 12 Israeli suspects who were initially arrested on July 17 after the British woman made the rape allegation against them.
Five Israelis had been released three days earlier after no evidence was found implicating them in the case.
Police have said the woman voluntarily recanted her rape allegation during questioning. While admitting there had been sexual contact with the suspects, she now said she wasn’t raped.
Lawyers representing the Israelis who ranged in age from 15 to 18 said they plan to sue the young woman on behalf of those she accused.
The woman alleged she was raped at the hotel where she and the dozen Israelis were staying.
The Israelis’ defense lawyers had said the woman was also working at the hotel and that she was in a relationship with one Israeli and had consensual sexual contact with several others over a period of several days.
The Cyprus News Agency reported that the woman allegedly told investigators she filed the rape report because she was “angry and insulted” that some of the Israelis allegedly recorded video of her having sex with a number of them.