A 40-year-old Ukrainian national who appeared in court on Thursday facing charges related to the alleged development of Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north intends to plead guilty to some of the charges he faces, according to reports.

The man appeared in court on Thursday, with newspaper Politis reporting that he faces a total of 36 charges relating to the advertising of residential units on Greek Cypriot-owned land in the Famagusta and Kyrenia district.

The newspaper said his lawyers sent a letter to the legal service informing it of his intention to plead guilty to some of the charges he faces, and for the remaining charges to be suspended.

Prosecution lawyer Anna Mattheou asked for time to assess the request, with Politis saying she said it “cannot be accepted as it stands”.

As such, it is now expected that consultation between the two sides will continue.

He is expected to answer the charges levelled against him on November 4.

He had been arrested at Larnaca airport in March and has remained in custody ever since.

The Republic of Cyprus has made a number of arrests related to the development of property in the north in recent months, with Israeli property developer Simon Aykut, who was arrested while trying to cross from the north at the Ayios Dhometios crossing point in June last year, the most notable.

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

A month after the arrest of Aykut, a German woman 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.

She, too, has now spent more than a year in custody.

In May, the first two sentences were handed down, with two Hungarian women being 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.

The north retaliated in July with the arrest of the five Greek Cypriots in the village of Galatia, near Trikomo.

They are on trial at a miliary court, with one of the five standing accused of having entered the north illegally and the remaining four standing accused of having aided and abetted that alleged illegal entry.

The verdict in that trial is expected next week.

Meanwhile, two of the five will next appear at a civilian court in Trikomo on October 21.

There, they face charges of privacy violations, which they allegedly committed while in Trikomo on July 19. The remaining three Greek Cypriots had earlier faced charges of trespassing and breaching the peace, but those charges were dropped on October 1.

All five remain on bail, with the north’s supreme court having found in two separate cases that earlier remand orders against them had been handed down illegally.