Lamiat Sabin reports from Westminster

SCORES of people have called for Cyprus to be boycotted ahead of tomorrow’s sentencing of a British teenager who has been convicted of “lying” about being gang-raped.

Today’s protest in London started outside the Cypriot High Commission before a march ended up in Parliament Square, via the Foreign Office. It was organised by campaign group Gemini Project.

The 19-year-old woman could receive up to a year in prison and a £1,500 fine after she reported that 12 Israeli youths entered a hotel room, pinned her down and gang-raped her while she was having consensual sex with one of them in Ayia Napa in July.

The young men also recorded the incident and distributed the footage online.

Lucy Nevitt, co-founder of Gemini Project with her twin sister Verity, told the Star that their campaign for justice will “absolutely” continue until the charges against the young woman are dropped and she returns to Britain.

She added: “We want her to be home with her support network. But her passport has been confiscated.

“We also want the British government to intervene and ensure there is an investigation to see if her human rights have been violated in the police station and during the trial.”

In Parliament Square, her sister Verity accused Cypriot authorities of a “miscarriage of justice.”

She said the teenager was “forced” to sign a police statement 10 days after initially reporting the incident and nine hours of overnight questioning, which led to the allegations being retracted and the 12 youths aged between 15 and 22 to return to Israel.

Verity accused Cypriot police of denying the woman access to a lawyer, failing to properly photograph and measure bruising, failing to examine clothing and the crime scene, failing to record their questioning, and failing to request DNA from the alleged assailants.

She added: “The alleged assailants were released and allowed to return home. They were at Ben Gurion airport with champagne chanting ‘the Brit is a whore’.”

A group of around 60 Israeli women led by academic Ruhama Weiss will protest in solidarity with the young woman outside the court in Cyprus while the sentencing takes place.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has conveyed concerns over whether the 19-year-old has received a fair trial to his Cypriot counterpart.

But, on Sunday, he claimed that the case needs to be handled “very sensitively” to avoid anything “counterproductive” before the sentencing.