12 Israelis held over alleged gang rape in Cyprus

A Cyprus court on Thursday ruled that 12 young Israeli men should stay in police custody for eight days after a 19-year-old British woman complained that she had been raped by them at a popular resort favored mostly by young tourists.

The court hearing in the unprecedented case was held in the southeastern city of Paralimni behind closed doors, as one of the suspects is a minor. The proceedings were attended only by relatives of the Israelis, who had arrived urgently from the neighboring country.

A large group of journalists representing Israeli and British media were kept outside the court as the female judge heard a police investigator recount the events.

The 19-year-old woman filed a complaint to the police on Wednesday, claiming that she was raped by 12 men at the hotel she was staying in at the Ayia Napa sea resort.

The suspects denied the accusation.

Nine of the suspects were brought to court in police cars, while the other three arrived an hour later in a bus.

Reports suggested that three of the 12 raped the woman, while an unspecified number of the rest had been recording the alleged incident on their mobile phones.

Israeli media reported that the 12 men were holidaying in Cyprus ahead of joining the Israeli army as conscripts in a few days.