Iraq: documents reveal theft of land owned by late architect Zaha Hadid

The latest victim of real estate fraud and systematic looting of property in Mosul is the late Zaha Hadid, the renowned architect who died in 2016. According to documents obtained by Al-Quds Al-Arabi, there is a sophisticated forging operation in operation intended to transfer the ownership of a plot of land that Hadid inherited from her maternal grandfather from the Sabounji family.

The criminal seizure of real estate and property is widespread in Nineveh, not least due to the influence of the so-called “economic offices” of factions and parties affiliated with the People’s Mobilisation Forces (PMF). This led to the closure of the real estate registration department in the “Left Coast” in Mosul for several months at the beginning of this year, before the Ministry of Justice reopened it following extended investigations under the supervision of the Commission of Integrity (COI). The COI regards the department as the most corrupt department in Iraq.

In March 2019, the COI arrested the former director of the real estate registry, Farhan Taha Hussein, on charges of fraud and forgery after his name was mentioned in the fact-finding committee set up by the Iraqi parliament.

According to interviews conducted by Al Quds Al Arabi with a legal official in the Nineveh governorate and employees in the Iraqi real estate registry, Hadid inherited the aforementioned land plot after the death of her mother, who acquired it in turn from her father. It was from the Sabounji family and the architect’s maternal grandfather who died in 1957.

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The plot known as Bustan Al-Sabounji covers eight acres in Mosul near the Rashidiya area adjacent to the Nineveh Plain. The date of the contract under which Hadid acquired the land area is 13 February 2014. An informed official said that “Sales and purchases were carried out based on a forged contract of sale which dates back to 6 March 2014.

At that time, Mosul was witnessing battles and a curfew under the control of the PMF militias and just before the rise of Daesh in the area. After checking the validity of the Sabounji land property bond, it was found that the document was forged, since all property transfers were suspended before the entry of Daesh into the city. Afterward, the local government stopped all land sales, purchases, and transfers in the Left Coast General Directorate of the Land Registry following the discovery of major fraud operations, especially after restoring the governorate from the grip of Daesh.

Another source indicated that “Recently, several parties affiliated with the PMF started zoning and selling the land, in addition to the presence of an alleged registered zoning document related to the land plot under question issued by the Sheikhan Criminal Court (a district affiliated with Mosul), which is probably forged and lacks authenticity. They forged these documents by adding a 2014 date to it, whereas, it is hard to find the origins of these documents which were burned and destroyed after Daesh’s presence in the city.”

In a previous press statement, the Assistant Governor of Nineveh for Administrative Affairs, Rifaat Smo, told the Iraqi Rudaw network that many forgeries had occurred at the level of the registration documents of residential real estate, agricultural land, and other properties and real estate in the General Directorate of Land Registry in Left Coast. He added that dozens of complaints have been filed in this regard.

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