Nouri adds though, that this ruling is not final by any means. The seller can file a lawsuit against the fraudster. “Which is what my client Ms. Mounir is now doing,” he noted.
Some Iraqis have no idea what is happening to their properties, the lawyer said, others will never know they've lost them. And some Iraqis are reluctant to do anything about it even if they do know whats happened – the costs of travelling back to Iraq and going to court may actually be more the property was ever worth.
Mosul policeman Saad Hakem says that a lot of internally displaced people have also become victims of these kinds of crimes. “They are afraid to go to court about it because they believe that the fraudsters belong to gangs who might take revenge on them,” he explains. “There are also plenty of corrupt lawyers and officers of the court who work with these fraudsters,” Hakem continues. “They forge the notification documents or collude by pretending to be a relative of the supposed property owner.”
And then even if the fraudsters are found guilty they may get away with relatively minor punishments – one recent penalty was six months imprisonment and another was an IQD20 million fine (US$17,000). Often though, the fraudsters simply disappear.
Meanwhile Faeza Mounir must await the results of her court case to see if she will get her own property back. In the meantime she does want the people of Iraq, both at home and overseas, to know more about her case – she wants it to ring alarm bells for all those who are in a similar position but who may not know it. “I just want the fraudsters to stop being able to commit these crimes,” Mounir says.
Comments are closed.