The Ministry of Justice will form special committees to scrutinize suspicious land and property deeds and refer them to authorities for further investigation.

A law will soon be drafted to deal with fraudulent and suspicious deeds under Article 15 of the executive list of the notary, a ministry official said.

The move comes following the detection of various cases of deeds forgery by judges and notaries before their retirement.

The ministry is looking into such cases and is listing retired judges and notaries who were involved in such fraudulent activity while in service.

Local media has said that the ministry has issued strict directions to courts and notaries about the importance of examining deeds before transferring their ownership.

“Property ownership transfers should be stopped if the deed looks suspicious or distorted or if no original copies were submitted before the court,” the official said.

Article 15 states that notaries should report any deeds or documents that might be forged, distorted or have no original copies.

The sources said the involvement of judges in forgery cases was proven through rulings issued by courts of appeal in various parts of the Kingdom last year.

Courts stated that several of these deeds were not genuine, like in the case of a SR1 billion deed forged by a retired judge.

The ministry also discovered that there were two more such deeds involving large areas of lands in southern Jeddah.

Upon examination, it was discovered that a retired member of the notary had forged the first deed and a retired judge was involved in forging the other.

Those involved in forgery will be referred to the Department of Public Prosecution with documentation to uncover the fraudulent deeds.