Cyprus’ highest court on Monday quashed the conviction of a British woman who had been found guilty of faking a claim that she was gang-raped on the island in 2019.

The woman appealed against the January 2020 verdict from a district court convicting her to four months in prison back in September 2021.

Since the woman’s lawyers went public to fight the lower court conviction, the case gained a lot of publicity causing a wave of support from women’s rights activists while several British and international organisations protested over her treatment by Cypriot authorities.

Following Monday’s ruling, lawyers, activists, politicians and the woman’s family said authorities must reopen the initial complaint of the woman having been raped.

“The acquittal by the Supreme Court…points to the failure of the authorities to effectively investigate the rape claims she reported. This is what we will now pursue,” said Nicoletta Charalambidou, one of the Cypriot lawyers representing the alleged victim.

The woman, then aged 19, reported to the island’s authorities that she had been raped by a group of Israeli youths in the resort of Ayia Napa back in July 2019. Days later the complaint was withdrawn, leading to her arrest and subsequent conviction for public mischief.

The woman, who spent several weeks in custody, said she withdrew her complaint under duress following hours of police questioning and without a lawyer present, and complained she was pushed to waive her right to a lawyer.

The Israeli youths were released hours after her statement, and allowed to return to Israel on the same day with no further process or providing evidence for their innocence, as the case ended up being more focused on whether the woman had misled authorities rather than having been sexually assaulted.

Media reports at the time also stated that the Israeli youths popped champagne at the airport upon arriving in Israel.

Cyprus’ attorney general said last week he couldn’t suspend the trial of a 19 year-old British woman found guilty of lying about being gang raped by as many as a dozen Israelis because she had leveled “grave accusations” against police investigators that had to be adjudicated in court.

He said the woman’s allegation that police coerced her into retracting her rape claim “could not have been left to linger” so he could not move to suspend the trial, AP reported.

Advocacy group Justice Abroad, has since pushed for a new investigation stating: “If justice is to be done, an authority would need to pick up on the evidence that was gathered in Cyprus and do with it what should have happened at the outset.”

Michael Polak, director of Justice Abroad, said Cyprus’s Supreme Court agreed the woman was not given a fair trial.

“Important fair trial provisions, which are in place to prevent miscarriages of justice, were totally disregarded in this case and a young and vulnerable woman was not only mistreated when she reported the rape to the police but then she was just put through a trial process that was manifestly unfair as the Supreme Court has recognised,” he said.

Cyprus’ Greens Party has also urged authorities to review the case, and take disciplinary action against police for any failings.

Cypriot Police have since agreed to review the case.