Lawyer Evalyn Ursua, former counsel of Subic rape victim "Nicole," on Tuesday has asked the Supreme Court to investigate the circumstances behind her former client's "recantation."

Ursua, who was accompanied by anti-crime advocate Teresita Ang-See and activists from Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and Gabriela, asked the high court in a petition to find out what they said wa the questionable veracity of Nicole's affidavit, recanting her previous rape allegation against US serviceman Lance Corporal Daniel Smith.

The lawyer said there could be an ethical violation committed in Nicole's affidavit. She cited that it was executed by Sycip Salazar Hernandez and Gatmaitan, reportedly the law firm representing the convicted US serviceman in the appellate court.

Ursua also complained that Nicole's recantation should have been executed in her presence, since she was still the official counsel of the rape victim when the affidavit was executed.

She said the affidavit was signed March 12, four days earlier before Nicole terminated her legal services.

Gabriela and Bayan, meanwhile, believes Nicole's recantation is part of a grand scheme to sway the public's opinion in favor of an eventual reversal of Smith's guilty verdict.

Ursua and the activist groups also asked the high court to stop the Court of Appeals from deciding on Smith's appeal pending the resolution of their petition.

Nicole doubts she was raped

In the five-page affidavit submitted by Smith's lawyers to the Court of Appeals last March 16, Nicole said she is conscience-stricken and now doubts if she was really raped on Nov. 1, 2005.

In her new statement, Nicole admitted she had been drinking a lot of alcohol that night and may have lost her inhibitions.

"With the amount of alcoholic mixed drinks I took, my low tolerance level for alcohol and with only a slice of pizza all night, it dawned upon me that I may have possibly lost my inhibitions, became so intimate with Daniel Smith and did more than just dancing and talking with him like everyone else on the dance floor," Nicole said in the affidavit.

Nicole said she herself poses questions and doubts on the case they built against Smith.

She asked, why would have Smith taken her out of the Neptune Club via the main entrance where a lot of people saw them if he had intended to rape her? And that if she had lost consciousness, as she insisted, why would she recall being kissed and groped by Smith at the back of the van that the American soldiers were using then?

Nicole said her conscience has been nagging her since she was friendly and intimate with Smith that night and they could've have gotten carried away.

"My conscience continues to bother me realizing that I may have in fact been so friendly and intimate with Daniel Smith at the Neptune Club that he was led to believe that I was amenable to having sex or that we simply just got carried away," she said.

Before Nicole's "recantation" was submitted to the appellate court, Ursua announced that her services had been terminated by the Subic rape victim. She also said that Nicole had left for the US for good. -- report from Marieton Pacheco, ABS-CBN News