Sulaymaniyah council warns against demolishing former court building for commercial use

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq — The Sulaymaniyah Municipality's Nature and Property Protection Board has raised objections to plans to demolish the former Sulaymaniyah Court building in the city center and replace it with a commercial project. In a statement, the board said all government offices housed in the building on Kaka Ahmed al-Sheikh Street in central Sulaymaniyah had been ordered to vacate, with no alternative premises provided and staff asked to search for rental space on their own. According to the statement, seven institutions operate from the building, including the Sulaymaniyah Notary Public, the Execution, Guardianship and Legal Oversight directorates, the Statistics Directorate, the Missing Persons Police Center and Ezmir Bank. The board said it had received information that the property would be transferred to a company close to the Kurdistan region's ruling Kurdistan Patriotic Union (PUK). The board emphasized that legal procedures, including a property valuation, a public tender and official approvals transferring the site to the highest bidder, must be carried out in full. It called for demolition and transfer work to be halted until an investigation is completed and all legal requirements are confirmed. No immediate response from the municipality or the company was reported.