A French court has rejected an extradition request filed by the Republic of Cyprus regarding a man whom it accuses of developing property on land in the north owned by Greek Cypriots without their consent.

The Aix-En-Provence court of appeal rejected the request on the basis that given that the European Union’s acquis communautaire is suspended in the north, it cannot be applied there.

As such, it stated, the courts of the Republic of Cyprus are not in a position to enforce laws in a territory over which it does not exercise control, with the result that the man, 39-year-old Behdad Jafari, was not extradited.

While it has been reported that the Republic of Cyprus intends to appeal the ruling, Jafari has already returned to the island, travelling from France to the north via Istanbul.

Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman welcomed the news, saying that “attempting to make individuals pay the price for problems arising from the lack of solution, treating the property issue, which is part of the Cyprus problem, as if it were a problem stemming from the individual actions and transactions of people, is in no way correct”.

“My wish is that in this new period, such approaches which negatively affect the much-needed climate for a solution will not be exhibited, and will be replaced by confidence-building and solution-oriented approaches,” he added.

He also stressed that the immovable property commission, which was set up in the north in 2005 to handle claims for compensation, restitution of Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north and land exchanges is “an effective domestic legal remedy … during the period leading up to a solution”.

Jafari was arrested at Nice airport in October after arriving on an inbound flight from Istanbul.

He is the owner of a construction company by the name of Isatis, which was founded in 2015, and which over the last decade has carried out various construction projects, primarily in and around the Famagusta district village of Ayios Sergios, but also in and around Trikomo and the Famagusta district village of Akanthou, among other locations.

Jafari is Iranian by birth and was naturalised as a citizen of the ‘TRNC’ in May 2023, on the same day as Fatih Buyuktopcu, the owner of newspaper Kibris.

He had obtained a multiple entry visa to visit France on July 25 from the country’s embassy in Ankara, using his Iranian passport, with that visa having been set to expire next week.

Jafari’s release comes at the end of a turbulent year for the question of property ownership and administration in Cyprus, with the Republic of Cyprus having handed three people jail terms over the construction and advertising of properties in the north.

The most high-profile of the three was Israeli property developer Simon Aykut, who was in October sentenced to five years in jail after having pled guilty to a total of 40 of the charges he faced related to the development and sale of Greek Cypriot property in the north.

In May, two Hungarian women were sentenced to two and a half years and 15 months in prison respectively after advertising the sale of houses in the north on their social media accounts and websites.

A number of cases are ongoing, too, with a German woman who was arrested after having a conversation aboard a flight with Elam member of the European parliament Geadis Geadi in which prosecutors allege that she admitted to selling Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north remaining in custody.