Israelis held in Cyprus over alleged rape

Six Israeli citizens have been arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of raping a British tourist, Israel's foreign ministry says.

A statement said the Israeli embassy had been informed and that its consul was in contact with local authorities.

There was no immediate confirmation from police or the UK government.

But Cypriot media reported that a court had ordered the detention of five foreigners pending investigation of an alleged rape of a tourist in Ayia Napa.

Reuters news agency separately cited a police source as identifying the tourist as a British woman.

The woman had filed a complaint with police on Sunday evening which alleged that she was attacked at her hotel in Ayia Napa earlier that day, the source said.

The source said the five suspects who were later detained in connection with the alleged rape were Israeli men aged 19 and 20.

The Times of Israel newspaper meanwhile quoted Israeli lawyer Nir Yaslovitz as telling Channel 12 TV: "According to the police in Cyprus, there is a serious suspicion, but unfortunately we have experience with such cases. I hope that the truth will come out."

In 2019, a British woman told police in Cyprus that she had been raped by 12 Israeli men and boys in Ayia Napa.

She later retracted the allegation after being held without a lawyer, and was then tried and convicted of causing public mischief.

Her conviction, which outraged women's rights campaigners, was overturned on appeal at the Supreme Court in Cyprus last year.