The German embassy in Nicosia has issued a “strong protest”, demanding the release of a woman held in custody for two years, accused of advertising real estate in northern Cyprus which was originally owned by Greek Cypriots, according to reports on Sunday.

German newspaper Bild reported that the embassy is “protesting strongly, demanding her release”, but that thus far, the Cypriot authorities have yet to acquiesce to the embassy’s request.

The woman was arrested in 2024 after having a conversation aboard a flight with Elam member of the European parliament Geadis Geadi in which prosecutors allege she admitted to selling Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north.

She has remained in custody ever since, with the most recent hearing on the case, on Friday, seeing her latest request for bail denied by the court, which stated that the 25 months she has spent in custody thus far “is justified by the complexity of the case”.

Thus far, the case has been fraught with accusations levelled against the Cypriot authorities regarding the procedures it undertook before and after her arrest.

In May, the Nicosia criminal court had ruled that a European investigation order issued by the Nicosia district court to compel the German authorities to collect evidence against her was issued legally.

The woman’s lawyers had argued that the district court had no right to issue such an order, and that only the criminal court itself could do so, but the criminal court found that district courts, too, are able to issue European investigation orders.

In total, four European investigation orders had been issued regarding the woman, the first two on July 18 and July 26, 2024, and the others both on September 13 of the same year.

Previously, the same court had found that the seizure of her luggage and the search of her electronic devices was illegal, rendering the evidence “unconstitutional” and “impermissible”.

The case comes with the Republic of Cyprus having doubled its efforts in recent years to prosecute those whom it accuses of illegally advertising the sale of and erecting building on Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north.

The most high-profile was Israeli property developer Simon Aykut, who was in October last year 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.

He was sent to Israel in April to serve out the remainder of his sentence.