Israeli property developer Simon Aykut saw his request to be released from custody rejected by the Nicosia criminal court on Monday.

Aykut is accused of developing and selling €43 million worth of property on Greek Cypriot land in the north.

His lawyers had requested that he be released due to “indications of a serious health problem”, with Christos Triantafyllides having said in court last week that there is a “serious possibility” Aykut may have cancer.

He had asked for his client’s release so that he can undergo a robotic biopsy abroad, given that the method is not available in Cyprus.

Prosecution lawyer Andreas Aristides had, on the other hand, argued that there are “modern and highly reliable” diagnostic methods available in Cyprus, and that Aykut has not utilised any of those methods thus far.

Judge Christiana Parpotta sided with the prosecution, saying on Monday that there are “diagnostic methods available in Cyprus” for the health problems described by Aykut’s lawyers, and that the reliability of those diagnostic methods “has not been questioned”.

In addition, she said, “it has not been documented” that the methods available in Cyprus “lag behind” the methods available elsewhere.

She went on to say that the exact test Aykut had requested, an “MRI fusion diagnostic examination”, is in fact offered in Cyprus manually, and that the manual form of the method is “considered equivalent to the method performed by robotic means abroad”.

Additionally, she said that the time Aykut has spent in custody – now over 400 days – is “not disproportionate to the charges against him”, and that as such, “his release would not be justified”.

“The delay observed in his trial is mainly due to procedures which were necessary due to pre-trial objections made by the defence,” she said.

The case will continue on Tuesday.