{"id":21972,"date":"2018-11-15T17:24:03","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T17:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21972"},"modified":"2018-11-15T17:24:03","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T17:24:03","slug":"iraq-recovers-property-worth-millions-after-illegal-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21972","title":{"rendered":"Iraq recovers property worth millions after illegal sale"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1404946\/middle-east\" readability=\"51\">\n<p>\nBAGHDAD: The Iraqi government said Wednesday it had retaken ownership of a piece of property in Baghdad worth millions of dollars after it was unlawfully sold to a government official\u2019s wife.<br \/>In a statement to journalists, the Integrity Commission said it had worked with Baghdad authorities to recover the land in Kadhimiyah district.<br \/>\u201cThe Baghdad-Karakh appeals court issued a decision to seize the property, which amounts to 12,642 square meters, from the wife of a leading official in the previous government and re-register it in the name of the Mayorality,\u201d the statement said.<br \/>\u201cThe land registration in the name of the official\u2019s wife has been nullified, as well as all subsequent registrations,\u201d it added.<br \/>The northern neighborhood of Kadhimiyah is home to a revered Shiite shrine, as well as some of the city\u2019s most luxurious properties \u2014 priced at up to $10,000 per square meter.<br \/>The Integrity Commission said its investigation had revealed the official had sold the property to his wife in violation of laws regulating the lease or sale of state-owned property.<br \/>It did not reveal the official\u2019s identity, but a parliamentary source told AFP the accused had briefly served as a deputy to Iraq\u2019s former prime minister, Haidar Al-Abadi.<br \/>In Baghdad, abandoned homes once belonging to Saddam Hussein-era officials or to minorities who have fled abroad are regularly occupied by powerful political parties.<br \/>Iraq, according to Transparency International, is the 12th most corrupt country in the world.<br \/>The embezzlement of public goods \u2014 from land to government funds \u2014 is a deeply rooted problem in a country with such a large public sector.<br \/>Corruption, shell companies and \u201cphantom\u201d public employees who receive salaries but do not work have cost Iraq the equivalent of $228 billion dollars since 2003, according to Iraq\u2019s parliament.<br \/>That figure is more than the country\u2019s gross domestic product and nearly three times the annual budget.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BAGHDAD: The Iraqi government said Wednesday it had retaken ownership of a piece of property in Baghdad worth millions of dollars after it was unlawfully sold to a government official\u2019s wife.In a statement to journalists, the Integrity Commission said it had worked with Baghdad authorities to recover the land in Kadhimiyah district.\u201cThe Baghdad-Karakh appeals court&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":21973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}