The European investigation order issued by the Nicosia district court to compel the German authorities to collect evidence against a German woman accused of advertising real estate in the north owned by Greek Cypriots was issued legally, the Nicosia criminal court ruled on Friday.

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.

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.

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

The same court had previously 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 last month to serve out the remainder of his sentence.

In May last year, two Hungarian women were 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.