A second “trial within a trial” began on Friday in the case against the 49-year-old German woman who stands accused of having sold Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north, this time related to the statement she gave to the police after being arrested in June last year.

The process had been requested by defence lawyers and comes after a previous “trial within a trial” had been held over the circumstances surrounding the woman’s arrest and the seizure of her personal items as evidence to be used against her.

The woman’s lawyers had argued that the manner in which she was arrested, as well as the seizure of her luggage and the search of her electronic devices, was illegal, and the court found in her favour, rendering the evidence “unconstitutional” and “impermissible”.

On Friday, prosecution lawyer Anna Mattheou said she disagreed with the court’s decision for a second “trial within a trial” and asked time to study it.

The next hearing will take place on November 5.

The 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.

Three people have thus far been handed jail sentences since the Republic of Cyprus began initiating legal proceedings against people it accuses of illegally using, developing, and selling Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north.

Most recently, Israeli property developer Simon Aykut was sentenced to five years in prison, after it was found that complexes of which he had taken ownership and developed cover 394,969 square metres of land, with a corresponding market value of just over €36 million.

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