JEDDAH: A source at the Mayor's Office has said that its Legal Affairs department is investigating the chairman of Brayman municipality over his orders to demolish and remove property from a farm of disputed ownership. The source said that Chairman Jamal Abdul Da'im, who is also accused of “tricking” the police into providing a presence as vehicles moved in at the site, had responded by claiming that the farm lay on government-owned land. Okaz has seen, however, an email from Abdul Da'im to an assistant mayor for branch municipalities ordering the measures in response to a complaint from a businessman. Some 400 palm trees were subsequently uprooted, a house demolished and a well filled in. Saudi Gazette reported Friday that Prince Mish'al Bin Majed Bin Abdul Aziz, Governor of Jeddah, had contacted the mayor to personally order a halt to the works. The ownership issue has been in the hands of Jeddah's General Court for some time and Prince Mish'al ordered no further action take place until the case is resolved after the municipality began works last week, reportedly ignoring earlier orders from the governorate to take no action until the courts had designated the land's ownership. The property is contested by a Saudi who claims it as compensation for another plot, while his opponents say they lawfully inherited it. One of the claimants to inheritance, Muqbil Al-Sa'edi, said he intended to take the mayoralty to court, “particularly the municipality of Brayman”. Jeddah Police said in an official letter to the Land Monitoring and Encroachments Committee last Wednesday that they had provided a presence in accordance with “misleading information” from Abdul Da'im. “The chairman went over and above the law and specific instructions and has put the police in an awkward position,” municipality police chief Abdul Aziz Al-Za'aqi said in the letter. “I am concerned about possible police involvement in future transgressions.”
