A British woman arrested for filing a false police report against 12 Israeli teenagers now says that she was forced by Cypriot police to sign her confession. According to a report Sunday evening by The Sun , the 19-year-old British student who had been vacationing in the Cyprus resort town of Ayia Napa now says her confession had been made to police under duress, adding that she had been denied an attorney during the investigation. The woman says investigators denied her access to an attorney during interrogation, and forced her to withdraw her complaint. She now claims that she was forced to dictate a confession, which she signed only because she was “exhausted” following eight hours at the police station. British attorney Michael Polak, a member of the NGO ‘Justice Abroad’, said there were serious problems with the way the investigation was handled, which may render the confession void. “The confession was obtained under oppression given the threats made. She was not cautioned and was not given access to a lawyer as was her right under the European Convention on Human rights,” said Polak. “Further, the teenager was not told she could leave the police station nor given the option of leaving at any point. It is also understood that unfortunately none of the proceedings at the Cypriot police station were recorded.” In her complaint, the report Sunday revealed, the British teen claimed that she had engaged in consensual relations with one of the 12 Israeli teens several times, but said that on one occasion he became violent. When she asked him to stop, she claims, he refused, and called over his friends to assault her. Eventually, after roughly an hour, the woman says, she managed to flee the hotel room. The British teen was indicted by a court in Cyprus last week, and could face up to a year in prison and a fine of around 1,700 euros ($1,900) for "public mischief". Initially, the teenager had alleged that 12 Israelis gang raped her at the hotel where she was staying in the popular resort of Ayia Napa on July 17. The Israeli tourists aged 15 to 18 were arrested shortly after the complaint was filed. 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. But then, in a dramatic reversal , the accuser recanted her claims, admitting that she had filed a false report to police accusing the teens of rape. Since then, the Israeli teens have said they plan on suing their accuser for the false arrest.
