The Nicosia court on Wednesday postponed until March next year, the case brought against a German real estate agent charged on 44 counts related to the usurpation of Greek Cypriot property in the north.

The woman is facing charges of advertising, promoting, selling, holding and using property in four different areas of Ayios Ambrosios and Kyrenia and for obtaining €169,000 from fraudulent acts, as well as purchasing an apartment for herself in one of the two areas without the consent of the legal proprietor.
She has been in custody since early July.

After numerous adjournments, the case had been set for hearing on Wednesday morning after all pre-trial objections raised by the defence were rejected on October 17.

During the proceedings on Wednesday, the court said it was postponing again due to a busy schedule until March 5, 2025, recommending the woman remain in custody until then.

At the previous hearing in October, the defence said the accused was willing to raise her bail to €300,000 plus a personal guarantee of €50,000, however the court dismissed the request at that time.

Defence lawyer Sotiris Argyrou on Wednesday raised objections to the unfair extension of detention and cited prison overcrowding. His side had also asked for an interpreter, a request that hadn’t been fulfilled.
Argyrou also said the defence had not received all of the witness material yet, while the translation of certain documents that had been handed over, was still pending. Her right to adequate preparation for the hearing was violated, he said.

In response, prosecutor Anna Mattheou said the translation of some documents from the witness material was indeed pending.

However, she said, this was something known to the defence, and they were the ones who had declared themselves ready for Wednesday’s hearing.

After a short break for deliberation, the president of the three-bench court read out a unanimous decision, according to which no differentiating factor had emerged from the hearing that would warrant a change to the extension of detention decided on.

Neither was there new evidence that would differentiate the personal circumstances of the accused. The extension was not considered excessive, “nor did it go beyond reasonable limits, given the complexity of the case”.

“Therefore, we consider the objection to further detention to be unfounded,” the ruling stated.
The court dd rule that meetings between the accused and the defence on the prison premises be conducted in the presence of a translator and the defence’s costs would be covered.

The German woman has denied any involvement in all 44 charges she is facing.

Her defence lawyer earlier argued she would not receive a fair trial due to bias. But the court threw out the pre-trial objection in October saying the lawyer had failed to properly substantiate why the court had given the impression of bias.

“Speculation cannot demonstrate bias and that a court will not perform its duty. It is unthinkable to exclude judges simply because charges touch on property in occupied territories,” the October ruling had stated.