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 Cypriot 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.
A view of buildings in the divided capital Nicosia, with a Turkish breakway giant flag painted in the background, right, and a Turkish crescent, left, on the Pentadahtilos mountain in the Turkish occupied area at northern part of the island of Cyprus, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
