Association in Mosul uses "legal fiction" to sell a state-owned land for hefty prices

Shafaq News/ The military clashes in Mosul ended with the expulsion of ISIS. However, since then, the battles of money, influence, and political power began. Land and real estate that belong to the state are distributed – sold – as residential units for citizens for hefty prices, only for them to discover that their land is a public property that belongs to one of the state departments.

In Mosul, the center of Nineveh, 400 km to the north of Baghdad, the second-largest city after the capital, everything is expected; land located within archaeological sites or dedicated to parks, green areas, school buildings, and health centers, are seized and sold to buyers after forging the documents.

Fraud

Many cases of property ownership disputes resurfaced after many citizens discovered that they spent a large amount of cash to buy a 15,000 square meters land, adjacent to their properties, from an organization that claimed it is eligible for sale.

However, after they completed the construction of residential units, they were informed by the Department of Antiquities that the land they bought is state-owned and that the houses will be removed.

For several months now, the citizens of Mosul are in utter confusion, especially since the chair of the association is in prison, along with some others of its members, are currently in prison. 

Big trouble

In a statement to Shafaq News Agency, Ahmed Adnan wondered, "the land has municipality services, and the association provided us with approvals at the time from many departments. So, how, all out of nowhere, did it become illegal?"

Legal fiction 

According to informed sources from inside the Nineveh Antiquities Department, "what happened was a legal fiction of the organization to get more money. There are two lands, 401 and 402, one of which officially belongs to the organization. However, it laid its hand on the land that belongs to the department of antiquities."

"The antiquities did not hold the organization accountable immediately. It did not possess the legal documents back then because they were burnt during the war on ISIS. However, after obtaining copies of the official papers, the department was able to distinguish the boundaries of its land and discovered that the organization usurped 15,000 square meters of it," a source said.

The buyers felt they fell into the trap of the organization, which tricked them into thinking that the official and fundamentalist approvals are for all lands.

This issue has been unresolved for several months now, and the local government has failed to find a solution. At any moment, the antiquities department may overrun the houses built on those lands and demolish them. If that happens, the citizens will lose tens of millions because of the trick the association used to defraud them.