Around half a billion square meters of government land acquired through fake registration deeds and documents has been retrieved following reports released by investigation committees in different parts of the Kingdom, local media said.

The committees, formed upon directives issued by the Ministry of Justice, had submitted detailed reports containing comprehensive information on forgery cases and the illegal issuance of documents, together with the names of individuals involved in such cases prior to their referral to investigative bodies, sources told a local daily.

Meanwhile, the committees are currently conducting investigating 18 suspicious registration deeds and documents issued three years ago, after which vast areas of land were seized. The findings will be submitted to the ministry to ascertain which documents are authentic, the sources said.

The sources did not disclose the location of these plots of lands, for which they said acquisition deeds were fraudulently issued by court clerks in several regions.

The campaigns are aimed at tracking down administrative corruption committed by court clerks Kingdom-wide and reflect the Ministry of Justice’s keen interest to follow up on cases involving forgery and land infringement.

The Ministries of Interior and Justice, municipalities and the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nazaha) earlier formed joint committees to monitor the names of people who have been repeatedly making claims to government lands to have their names blacklisted and referred to jurisdictive bodies.

The Shoura Council recently passed a law on the control and protection of government land and the prevention of land encroachment. The law stipulates that an intruder be fined SR10,000 for the first infraction, SR20,000 for second-time offenses and SR40,000 for third-time offenses.