Two Hungarian nationals were handed down jail sentences this week by a Cyprus court for acting as intermediaries in the sale of property in the Turkish-occupied north of the island republic.
The properties in question, according to the indictment, belong to Greek Cypriots displaced since the July 1974 Turkish invasion and the subsequent occupation.
The suspects, both women, entered guilty pleas for a handful of individual counts during a court hearing last month in Nicosia. The sentences handed down were 2.5 years for the first defendant, identified as a retired beautician, and 15 months for the second, a hair stylist.
The pair was convicted of posting ads for six new residences near the northeast port city of Kyrenia, in the Turkish-occupied areas. The area is among the most picturesque on the divided island republic. The two were accused of advertising new holiday units constructed in the north, and specifically east of Kyrenia, on land owned by Greek Cypriots.
The issue of usurpation of Greek Cypriots’ properties in the occupied north remains a major “sore point” for the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus and tens of thousands of refugees that fled or were expelled by the invading Turkish forces in July and August 1974.
In a verdict read out at the proceedings, the justices noted that the pair, both living on Cyprus for more than a decade, “knew or should have known that they did not have the owners’ consent to sell the properties on usurped land.
