Government employees, lawyers among 61 arrested in Muthanna land forgery case

MUTHANNA — Iraq’s National Security Service arrested 61 people, including government employees and lawyers, in Muthanna on Friday over an alleged network involved in forging and manipulating land allocation and property registration documents, the agency said.

The National Security Service said in a statement that the operation followed intelligence gathering and fieldwork conducted under the supervision of the relevant judicial authorities to “dismantle a network involved in forgery and manipulation of transactions and records concerning land plots and real estate registration,” the statement said.

Authorities arrested 61 suspects, including government employees, lawyers and owners of real estate offices, according to the statement.

Investigators uncovered more than 90 forged transactions linked to the case, the agency said. The investigation also identified violations and irregularities that caused an estimated 2 billion Iraqi dinars ($1.53 million at the official exchange rate) in losses to public funds, according to the statement.

Land allocation has featured in several recent cases. Municipality employees and brokers were arrested in Nasiriyah on suspicion of forging official documents for residential land plots, the Supreme Judicial Council said earlier this month, with investigators seizing official seals, records, forged powers of attorney, communication devices and weapons.

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.

The cases fall within a campaign that widened after the arrest of former Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili in May, which has produced about 82 billion dinars and $152 million in cash along with 484 kilograms of gold.