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 t

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