NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) -- A court in Cyprus on Friday sentenced an Israeli businessman to five years for developing and selling luxury apartment complexes in the breakaway northern part of the divided island without permission of the Greek Cypriots owners of the land.

The case is one of several where Cypriot authorities seek to bust developers and realtors who illegally make money off Greek Cypriot properties in the breakaway north -- lands that their rightful owners cannot access because they are located in the Turkey-backed region.

The criminal case also underscores the deeply contentious property rights in Cyprus, which was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded in the wake of an Athens junta-backed coup aiming at uniting the island with Greece.

Some 160,000 Greek Cypriots subsequently fled the north where Turkish Cypriots declared independence that only Turkey recognizes. At the time, around 45,000 Turkish Cypriots living in the south, where the internationally recognized government is seated, moved to the north.

Cyprus' internationally recognized government in the south has no control over affairs in the breakaway north. Decades later, Greek Cypriots that left the north are demanding that their right to their property are respected in numerous rounds of United Nations-mediated talks that have failed to heal the rifts.

Israeli businessman Shimon Mistriel Aykout, 75, who also holds Portuguese and Turkish citizenship, was arrested in June 2024 as he crossed from the north into the Greek Cypriot part of the island. Last week, he pleaded guilty to 40 counts of building and selling apartments in the north.

The three-judge panel said it was compelled to hand down a tough sentence because of the seriousness of the crime.

Between 2014 and 2024, Aykout headed the Afik Group of Companies that developed some 400,000 square meters (4.3 million square feet) of Greek Cypriot-owned properties in four villages in the north. Cypriot authorities estimate the combined value of the development exceeds 38 million euros ($44 million.)

Aykout's supporters have campaigned for his release both in Israel and the United States on health grounds, saying he suffered from prostate cancer. The court rejected arguments for him to be released for medical examination abroad, saying Cypriot medical facilities are more than adequate.

The court said the sentence takes into account time that Aykout had served in police custody.

After the sentencing, prosecuting attorney Andreas Aristides told reporters that Cyprus' ethnic division does not diminish the rights of the lawful owners of property in the north.

The court's decision sends "a clear message ... that if you buy, build or otherwise use land in the occupied areas that belongs to Greek Cypriots, you're committing serious criminal acts," he said.

Simos Angelides, a lawyer in Nicosia, Cyprus' capital, said Friday's ruling and similar cases have "triggered panic" in the north's booming real estate and construction industry and "shattered the illusion of legal impunity."

The message is simple: "Do not exploit stolen property, as you may soon have an arrest warrant in your name," Angelides, who was not involved in the Aykout case, told The Associated Press.

The EU's top court and the European Court of Human Rights have affirmed Greek Cypriots' rights to property ownership in the north. But the ECHR has also backed the establishment of a Turkish Cypriot property commission to which Greek Cypriots can apply to either be compensated for their property or reclaim it.

Over the last year, Cyprus has prosecuted another Israeli, a Ukrainian, a German and two Hungarians in similar cases. Of them, two Hungarian women who earned commissions as real estate agents in the north were sentenced in May to 36 months and 15 months, respectively. The other cases are still pending.

Turkish Cypriot authorities have reacted angrily to the prosecutions. Tufan Erhurman, a center-left politician elected as Turkish Cypriot leader this week, has said that the issue of Greek Cypriot property in the north can only be resolved through negotiations.

Cafer Gurcafer, head of the Turkish Cypriot Contractors' Association, warned that investors could scatter since as much as 85% of privately owned property in the north could become entangled in similar prosecutions.

The case of five Greek Cypriots arrested on spying charges after crossing into the north in July is widely seen as retaliation for the prosecutions.

A month before their arrest, Turkish Vice President Cevded Yilmaz said attempts to harm the Turkish Cypriot economy through politically motivated legal means would "not be tolerated."

Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides stresses that the judiciary is independent but that Aykout's guilty plea vindicates his government's policy to shine a light on illicit property exploitation in the north.