Mosul residents protest seven-year construction ban on land plots

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Residents of Mosul's Al-Muthanna Second district held a protest on Friday calling for the lifting of a construction ban on their land plots, saying the restriction has been in place for about seven years. The demonstrators said the crisis began with a 2021 court order that halted construction on roughly 300 plots over suspected fraud, bringing building activity in the area to a standstill. Landowners said they had purchased their plots officially from the "Jedideh Association" for sums ranging from 80 million to 120 million dinars and hold title documents for the transactions. They argued that the legal issues affect only about 30 percent of the plots in the district, but the building moratorium has been applied to the entire area. The protesters urged local authorities, the Nineveh governor and the head of the Court of Appeals to lift the construction ban. On Tuesday, dozens of Mosul residents had also gathered to demand the removal of a building restriction that, according to the protesters, has been in force for roughly 20 years in a separate dispute. No immediate response from officials was reported.