FOUR men from Liopetri accused of kidnapping and raping a 19-year-old tourist from Finland in May last year, yesterday pleaded not guilty to the allegations.
The four men, Panayiotis Ktoris, 23, Costas Kyprianou, 18, Haris Charalambous, 24 and Kyriacos Zanou, 19, appeared before the Larnaca district court where they admitted to having sex with the girl at a remote location outside Ayia Napa, but denied raping and kidnapping her.
The prosecution claimed that the suspects approached the Finnish woman outside a nightclub in Ayia Napa and asked her to follow them but she refused.
The suspects allegedly waited for her until she came out of the nightclub with her boyfriend and they asked again to have sex with them.
When she refused they threw her into a car, pushed her boyfriend out of the way and drove off.
The woman’s boyfriend called the police who finally found the tourist wandering outside the same nightclub. When she saw the police she started crying and pointed at the suspects accusing them of raping her.
The men fled the scene but where later arrested. When interrogated the men claimed the tourist had had sex with them of her own free will.
Samples of clothing and blood was taken for DNA testing, but the suspects insisted they had not kidnapped her, saying that after they had sex they even bought her an energy drink at a sandwich place.
The suspects’ trial has been set for November 27.
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