The case against the 49-year-old German woman who stands accused of having sold Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north was on Monday adjourned until Wednesday as the prosecution lawyer is ill.
Wednesday’s hearing will see the “trial within a trial” related to the statement she gave to the police after being arrested in June last year continue.
The woman’s lawyers argue that the testimony she gave is inadmissible due to proper process not having been followed at the time, but the prosecution argues that she had spoken voluntarily after her luggage was searched.
The court has already found that the seizure of her luggage and the search of her electronic devices was illegal, rendering the evidence “unconstitutional” and “impermissible”.
Three people have thus far been handed jail sentences since the Republic of Cyprus began initiating legal proceedings against people it accuses of illegally using, developing, and selling Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north.
Most recently, Israeli property developer Simon Aykut was sentenced to five years in prison, after it was found that complexes of which he had taken ownership and developed cover 394,969 square metres of land, with a corresponding market value of just over €36 million.
Previously, two Hungarian women were sentenced to two and a half years and 15 months in prison respectively in May after advertising the sale of houses in the north on their social media accounts and websites.
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