Five young Israeli males were released by Cyprus police on Thursday and allowed to return home, Channel 12 reported.“My first stop upon returning will be the Western Wall,” a youth interviewed with his face blurred told the camera crew.
12 young Israelis were detained by police while on vacation under suspicion they gang-raped a 19-year-old British tourist on July 17. Seven of them remain in custody and are expected to attend a hearing on Friday.
While the Israelis did not deny knowing the young woman, they claimed the sexual acts were done with her consent.One of them even presented the police with a video on his phone in which he captured the acts with the young woman and his friends and asked the investigators if they can see a rape taking place.
It appears that those who remain in police custody are the men police believe can be tied to the scene using either forensic evidence or footage which was deleted by them and restored by the police technicians.
“All I want is to return home,” said the young man who spoke with Channel 12. An attorney of one of the men still detained warned that should police indict his client he and the others might spend years in Cyprus.