Nasiriyah municipality staff held over forged land documents

BAGHDAD — Municipality employees and brokers have been arrested in Nasiriyah on suspicion of forging official documents for residential land plots, the Supreme Judicial Council said Friday, with investigators seizing official seals, records, forged powers of attorney, communication devices and weapons.

The raids were run by the Dhi Qar office of the Federal Commission of Integrity with the governorate’s Intelligence Directorate, under an investigative judge from the Integrity Investigation Court and a public prosecutor at the Dhi Qar Court of Appeal, the council said. The judge said statements had been taken and the suspects would be referred for trial. The council released footage of the raids.

It did not say how many people were arrested, how many plots were involved, whether anyone had bought or lost land through the forged documents, or why the suspects were armed.

Land allocation has featured in several recent cases. In late July the Federal Commission of Integrity said it had broken up a forgery network in Diwaniyah, arresting 13 people including government employees and lawyers accused of producing false documents to obtain public loans and residential land worth more than 4 billion dinars, among them 13 plots obtained for people not eligible for them. Days later the commission said about 30 warrants had been issued over contracts and procurement at the same Diwaniyah directorate, naming its current head and five predecessors.

Judicial authorities have also pursued seal forgery elsewhere. Four suspects were arrested in Baghdad’s Shaab area on July 19 on charges of forging seals belonging to Rusafa court authorities to issue illegal marriage contracts, and in April a court in Salah al-Din sentenced a lawyer to seven years after forged seals attributed to courts and other institutions were seized, under Article 275 of the penal code.