Abdul Rahman Al-Ali Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – A trial of 10 suspended notary publics, two suspended clerics, businessmen and real estate brokers accused of forging three title deeds for plots of land in Makkah is expected to resume at the Jeddah Administrative Court on Monday. The total value of the land is estimated to be SR100 million while the total area is 700,000 square meters. The defendants allegedly forged title deeds and official documents for the land four years ago. During a previous hearing one of the real estate brokers admitted giving one of the notary publics an SR800,000 bribe to complete procedures for a land ownership transfer. This notary public told the court earlier that he did complete these procedures but did not know that the title deeds were fake documents. He said he received over 50 documents on a daily basis and there was no way he could have had any doubts about the authenticity of the title deeds because he did not have any experience in telling whether a document was forged or not. He denied previous statements that indicated he knew about the fake title deeds. Another real estate broker who appeared before the court and was also accused of giving a bribe to another notary for issuing one of the title deeds denied the charges against him, telling the judge that he had nothing to do with the forging of the official documents. One of the businessmen who appeared before the court was accused of offering half of a plot of land he owned to a real estate broker as a bribe to complete a land ownership transfer illegally. Other defendants involved in the case denied all charges against them while the prosecution requested time to prepare his response to the defendants' statements. Meanwhile, the Jeddah Administrative Court is set to issue a final verdict in a case involving the former head of a municipality who was accused of abusing his power to illegally purchase plots of land for himself. The defendant said in the first court hearing that he had previously been detained for 69 days over the same charges and his confession was made under duress. He denied all charges and told the judge that he was not given any land by anyone and that the land registered under his name was bought with his late father's company's money. He added the land also belongs to his father's heirs and the purchase was legal. The prosecution has always maintained the defendant abused his powers to purchase land illegally. At the accused's request, the court called a businessman to testify in his favor.
