Pictured: Yona Golub, who claimed the 19-year-old student had turned his life into a nightmare

One of the 12 Israeli youths accused of taking part in the gang-rape caused outrage yesterday by vowing to pursue the British teenager through the courts for compensation.

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Yona Golub claimed the 19-year-old student had turned his life into a nightmare.

'We're preparing to sue her,' he declared. 'She deserves to go to jail.'

The woman, who is now facing up to a year in prison after a hearing last week, says she retracted her statement about the alleged rape after pressure from detectives following ten hours of questioning that was not recorded or conducted in front of a lawyer.

Amid widespread anger over the case, the country's president is under increasing pressure to issue a pardon.

Tracked down by The Mail on Sunday to the town of Afula, near Nazareth, Mr Golub, 18, did not express any sympathy for the woman, who was left with extensive bruising and is now suffering from PTSD.

Instead, he insisted that he and the other youths were victims. He admitted his life was back to normal but claimed: 'We deserve compensation for what we went through. I don't know how much I should get.

'They need to put her in prison and only afterwards should they deal with the compensation.'

An Israeli teenager is embraced by relatives after being released from Famagusta police headquarters in southeast town of Paralimni, Cyprus in July

Last night Mr Golub's inflammatory comments provoked a furious reaction.

Professor Ruhama Weiss, a director of pastoral counselling at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, will fly with more than 40 other Israelis to Cyprus to show solidarity with the Briton when she is sentenced on Tuesday.

Dr Weiss said: 'The reason is that we are very much ashamed of what happened, and we want to say that not all Israelis are the same. We want to say to the British girl that we believe her and we want to say out loud that we are with her.'

Jamie Doran, who is making a film about the case, said: 'This woman has been through hell and for these individuals to be attacking her yet again is beyond humanity.'

Mr Golub, who was held in custody for eight days, said he was not among the Israelis who were in the room with the teenager when she claimed she was raped but in bed in the same budget hotel with an Israeli girl.

The Briton (right) leaves court after being found guilty of lying – her mask with lips sewn up signifies the fact that her voice is being silenced

He says he was arrested simply because he was on holiday with two friends who had been in the room.

Police released him after his girlfriend gave them a selfie she had taken of them in her room at the time the rape was said to have taken place.

Mr Golub was not among the seven men freed on July 28 who were pictured on their return home dancing in an airport arrivals hall.

He had returned two days earlier after police found no evidence against him.

He recalled: 'The police took DNA swabs from our mouths and the enormity of what happened began to hit me.

'I was sure I was going to be put in prison for my whole life.'

Michael Polak from Justice Abroad, who is advising the family, states 'Yona Golub is not a person that was named by the teenager at any point. It also appears that no witness statements or interrogation documents from a person of this name were served upon us during the proceedings.

'If Mr Golub was arrested by the Cypriot Police in relation to this incident and was not involved, this may be because the Cypriot Police swept up a number of Israeli youths and then failed to hold an identification parade of any kind. It is quite possible, as I have stated in previous statements, that the Cypriot Police arrested people who were not involved in any offence against the teenager and had never seen her as claimed by Mr Golub.

'If this happened to Mr Golub then his complaint lies against the Cypriot Police.'