Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has ordered payment of compensation to owners of private properties that have been demolished for the expansion of the Two Holy Mosques.

Courts had earlier stopped looking into such requests and had rejected approval of payment.

However, a Royal Decree,which was delivered to the Ministries of Finance and Islamic Affairs, has ordered the immediate payment of compensation, stating that such cases should be treated as exceptional cases exempted from the application of Articles 253 and 254 of the Shariah litigation system.

This will allow the payment of a predetermined sum in compensation and finding legislative alternatives by coordinating the matter with public courts according to regulatory procedures.

The decree ordered the formation of a tripartite committee consisting of the Ministries of Justice, Finance and Islamic Affairs to examine all existing objects before removing property. These should be based upon pre-existing approved documents that were registered in property removal data to expand the two Holy Mosques.

All properties and awqaf that don’t meet these criteria will be examined individually by the committee.

Minister of Justice Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Eisah issued a judicial circular to all courts to implement the Royal Decree and complete paperwork related to these cases.

Official sources at the committee to develop the northern yards told local media that around 200 applicants will benefit from the Royal Decree.

The source said the General Court and notary are getting ready to register the real estate properties in question, saying these buildings have already been evaluated by the Land Evaluation Committee, which is composed of officials from the Ministries of Interior, the Makkah Governorate, Ministry for Municipal and Rural Affairs and the Ministries of Justice and Finance.

The committee also has real estate experts who were nominated by the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The source said the payment of compensation was delayed because of the absence of space specifications in the deeds to these properties, which are a prerequisite for getting compensation from the public benefit system.