The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Cyprus violated the property rights of 10 nationals by failing to return land expropriated in 1976 for industrial development.
The plot remained largely unused for decades at the Agios Athanasios area of Limassol.
The court found that the authorities failed to act on the claimants’ 2008 request to reclaim the land and awarded a total of €17,000 for non-pecuniary damage and legal costs, postponing a decision on further pecuniary damages.
In its decision on the appeal of Nicolaou and Others against Cyprus, the ECHR noted that the case here rested on the ‘refusal of authorities’ to return the expropriated land to the initial owners or their legal successors.
The 10 nationals or their ancestors owned a 7,024 square metre plot of land in Ayios Athanasios which was never used by the state for developing an industrial zone, but part of it was utilised to construct roads.
In the 1980s, the state entered negotiations on various construction projects inside the remaining 3,974 square metres, but these ‘never materialised’.
The claimants asked for the return of the disputed land, as according to existing legislation they had right to restitution if the land remained unused, a right which was denied, as the Court ruled.
They were informed by the competent Cypriot authorities that the land was to remain an ‘open space’, noting that the industrial zone plans had yet to be totally abandoned.
The 10 claimants acted on Article 1, Protocol 1 (protection of property) of the European Convention of Human Rights, as 32 years elapsed without restitution, an argument which the Court accepted as valid, with the Republic now obliged to return the property.