The Cypriot chief of police has ordered an investigation into allegations by tourists that they were forced to make incriminating confessions. The move has been welcomed by Annette Mangan (22), the Dublin woman serving a four-month jail sentence for a false rape accusation against an Irish man in the resort of Aya Napa. The investigation was ordered after two British teenagers told a British newspaper they had been compelled by the police to sign a statement admitting they had falsely reported a theft to make an insurance claim. Over the past 10 days, there have been six cases involving tourists who have allegedly made false claims. All were fined and released. Mangan is the only person to have received a custodial sentence.
She withdrew her charge of rape after a medical examination showed no evidence of a sexual assault and she was promised she would go free. Her father, Mr Albert Mangan, told The Irish Times yesterday that she said the police had "told her exactly how to word her statement. They did not write it, but they dictated it". According to Mr Mangan, one policeman told her: "We will all go home if you sign, these people (the accused and two witnesses) will go home, you will go home, I will go home."
After hearing that consideration of their appeal for clemency could take 10 to 15 days, Mr Mangan paid an unannounced visit to the Attorney General's office where he met the lawyer handling the case. "He was very sympathetic, our lawyer is sympathetic, everyone is sympathetic but they all say `It takes time'. The only person doing time is Annette." She told her father yesterday that the prison governor had promised to write to the Attorney General about her case. "This tells me that even the governor thinks she doesn't belong there." The family and their lawyer have a formal appointment at the Attorney General's office on Tuesday.
Yesterday, two English women were jailed for four months for stealing money and goods worth £1,000 from a house near Larnaca earlier this month. Georgina Fields (25), and Laurie Bridges (21), both from Birmingham, had confessed at an earlier court hearing to having committed burglaries at home. When they were sentenced, Fields said: "My God, in Birmingham we did 150 burglaries and we were never taken into custody. Why are they doing this to us in Cyprus?"
