UK Edition 
Criminals fleeing British justice can no longer use Cyprus as a safe haven, judges rule, in landmark decision
For years, the breakaway Turkish part of the island has been used as a haven by UK runaways, safe in the knowledge they cannot be extradited.
But in a ruling today, judges said there was nothing to stop British police co-operating with law-enforcement agencies on the island.
That means fugitives who refuse to return to Britain to face trial can be prosecuted in Northern Cyprus instead.
The judges were dealing with the case of 60-year-old businessman, Hasan Akarcay, who is suspected of involvement in serious drugs crime.
Mr Akarcay fled the UK for Northern Cyprus in 2006 after the discovery of a consignment of 12.5kg of heroin in Bradford.
West Yorkshire Police believe fingerprint evidence links Mr Akarcay to the drugs, which were said to be worth £600,000.
He is now set to be prosecuted in Northern Cyprus after the fruits of the UK investigation were passed on to Turkish Cyprus.
Some of the evidence was handed over to visiting Northern Cypriot officers in the UK and some directly to authorities there by a National Crime Agency official.
Mr Akarcay's legal team took the case to the High Court, where they claimed the passing of evidence and assistance to Turkish Cyprus was illegal.
His lawyers argued that co-operating amounted to an "act of recognition" by the UK of Northern Cyprus.
That was illegal, because it breached the terms of repeated UN Security Council resolutions, they claimed. But rejecting the challenge, Lord Justice Burnett said there was no duty in UK law upon the Government to refrain from recognising Northern Cyprus.
The United Nations itself works with Northern Cyprus law enforcement agencies and facilitates co-operation between the two parts of the island.
"In the circumstances of this case, the public interest in co-operation is clear," said the judge, who considered the case with Mrs Justice Thirlwall.
"The claimant is suspected of being part of a significant drug conspiracy. Had he remained in England, he would have been prosecuted.
"He has put himself beyond the reach of the criminal justice system in England and Wales.
"There is a clear public interest in him being prosecuted elsewhere if that is possible. It is possible in Northern Cyprus."
He accepted that there was evidence of concerns in relation to conditions in the male prison in Northern Cyprus.
However, that did not mean that the conditions were not up to the standard required by the European Human Rights Convention.
The judges dismissed Mr Akarcay's challenge.