19-year-old UK tourist arrested for falsely accusing Israeli teens of gang rape
19-year-old UK tourist arrested for falsely accusing Israeli teens of gang rapeREUTERS

Israeli teenagers who were arrested on rape charges earlier this month in Cyprus are planning to sue their former accuser, after she admitted to investigators that she had lied about the incident.

Yaniv Habari, an Israeli lawyer working in Cyprus, said Monday night that the teens who had been falsely accused were planning to “pursue legal action against the person behind the false accusations that led to [their] being unjustly detained.”

“We will claim damages for the suffering of our clients,” Habari told AFP.

In addition, some of the 12 Israeli teenagers arrested in the Cypriot resort town of Ayia Napa have turned to their travel insurance provider to compensate them for the cost of their flight and hotel rooms, Israel’s Channel 13 reported.

The accuser, a 19-year-old British tourist, had accused the 12 Israeli teenagers of gang rape earlier this month, prompting authorities to arrest the Israelis, who ranged in age from 15 to 18.

After five of the 12 Israeli teens were proven to have not been present at the time of the alleged rape, including some who had clear alibis placing them elsewhere during the incident, Cyprus authorities freed the five, who returned to Israel last Thursday and Friday.

Over the weekend, the accuser recanted her claims, admitting that she had filed a false report to police accusing the teens of rape.

According to an attorney for some the defendants and unnamed local police officials, the accuser told investigators that she had had consensual relations with several of the Israeli teens, but later sought to take revenge on them by accusing them and their traveling companions of rape.

One source told AFP the woman said she was “angry and insulted” that the teens had filmed their encounters with her.

An attorney for the defendants later said the accuser had offered to have relations with one of the Israeli teens, but was rejected and told to leave the hotel room. The woman then sought to take revenge by filing the police complaint.