BAGHDAD — For 20 years after the US invasion of Iraq, palaces, real estate and property belonging to the regime of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and all the leaders and staff of the Baath Party were up for grabs for many parties and personalities who took power after 2003, as part of the implementation of the eradication measures issued after the invasion, according to many observers.

In March 2018, the Supreme National Authority for Accountability and Justice issued a decision that included the confiscation of the movable and immovable assets of Saddam Hussein, his children, grandchildren and relatives up to the second degree, and the decision included thousands of former regime officials, including 52 leaders, most notably Saddam's personal secretary Abd Hammoud, the president's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, his deputy Taha Yassin Ramadan, and his foreign minister, Tariq Aziz.

The decision also included the seizure of the movable and immovable assets of 4257,<> governors and members of the Baath Party, who are at the rank of "branch member" of the party and those who are higher, and those who held the rank of brigadier general and above in the security services of private security, intelligence, military security, public security, and Saddam's fedayeen.

Most of the real estate and property of Saddam Hussein's regime are located in the capital Baghdad (Al-Jazeera)

What's the new decision?

Recently, the Iraqi Council of Ministers voted on the decision to abolish the Committee to seize the property and funds of the former regime's staff and officials belonging to the Baath Party, and the government's recommendation to the Council of Representatives to withdraw the draft law amending the first law to Law No. 72 of 2017, which stipulates the seizure and confiscation of movable and immovable property belonging to the former regime.

The latter decision also included the possibility of the aggrieved party to file lawsuits regarding the seizure or confiscation decision before the competent courts, while Law No. 72 of 2017 had indicated - in one of its articles - that if this seizure was signed on a person who legally owns a house, he can object before a committee talked about by the law.

Law No. 72 benefited dozens of those whose properties and real estate were confiscated after 2003, by lifting the seizure of their property, and they were colonels or less, and among them "M. F.", who says – in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Net – that he was able in 2019 to lift the seizure decision on a piece of land he owned in Diyala Governorate (east) through the committee that the law talked about, where he was an officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel in one of the security services of the Presidency of the Republic before the invasion.

For his part, legal expert Ali Al-Tamimi – speaking to Al Jazeera Net – that the decision issued by the Council of Ministers canceled the committee stipulated by the law in 2017, which included representatives of the Ministries of Justice and Finance, which means that the affected can now resort to the judiciary instead of using the committee, which was canceled according to the recent Cabinet decision.

The recent cabinet decision followed a similar decision to grant members of Saddam's former fedayeen apparatus pension rights (French)

Political or commercial deal?

As a result, the views of observers differed on the mysteries and reasons for the timing of the issuance of the recent cabinet decision, between those who acknowledge that it came within the outputs of the political deals that led to the formation of the current government headed by Muhammad Shia al-Sudani, especially since it came after a similar decision that included granting members of the former Saddam fedayeen apparatus their rights, by including them in pensions and martyrs' entitlements, after nearly 20 years of their uprooting.

Hadi al-Salami, a member of the integrity committee in the Iraqi parliament, said that such decisions are only issued within political deals, including the current government formation deal, as this deal was prepared in advance on the basis of political consensuses between parties, as he put it.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Al-Salami says that the directorates of real estate registration in Iraq have witnessed major corruption operations during the previous years, during which dozens of properties, real estate and land were seized, whether belonging to members of the Baath Party or ordinary citizens, according to him.

On the other hand, there are those who believe that the latest decision represents a commercial deal in order to buy these properties and properties after lifting the seizure at low prices, especially since most of their owners are either dead or outside Iraq and cannot return to their country.

Al-Salami: The decision of the Council of Ministers came as a result of the political deal on which the Sudanese government was formed (Al-Jazeera)

What are the most prominent methods of forgery?

A lawyer who handled cases related to the restitution of real estate and property for nearly eight years, some of which belonged to leaders and members of the Baath Party, reveals that most of them belonged to the state, while political forces and influential figures seized them after 8.

The lawyer, who preferred not to be named – in his interview with Al Jazeera Net – cites an example of this, which is the house of Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri, Saddam Hussein's deputy in the Al-Tayaran neighborhood and the house of Watban Al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother in the forest area, which is located in Nineveh province (north), where they are still seized by one of the armed factions.

The first is to transfer ownership in absentia when the owner of the property is unknown to the place of residence, as he is officially notified by publishing the invitation to transfer ownership twice in two official newspapers, with a wait of 10 days, and then a ownership invitation is held by a decision in absentia, where the decision is passed to the Real Estate Registration Department to register the property in the name of the new buyer, according to him.

The second method is through seizure using force, especially those real estate that have provisions to confiscate movable property, while immovable funds have been shared between parties and influential figures, according to the lawyer who testified to Al Jazeera Net.

The lawyer concludes by stressing that the Iraqi capital Baghdad is at the forefront of the provinces that include confiscated properties and real estate of the Baathists, including palaces and villas located in the upscale areas of the neighborhoods of Mansour, Jadriya, Zayouna, Karrada and Palestine Street, followed by the governorates of Nineveh (north), Dhi Qar (south) and Salah al-Din (north of Baghdad).

Economist Qusai Safwan estimates that the late President Saddam Hussein owned about 600 palaces and real estate (Getty Images)

What steps are needed?

For his part, economist Qusai Safwan stressed the need to authorize the National Audit Office (NAO), the highest financial supervisory body responsible for monitoring and protecting public funds, to follow up on the process of seizing such real estate and property, and to supervise the mechanisms for returning them to their original owners.

Qusai also believes that it is necessary to supervise the transfer or sale of these properties, in order to prevent the exploitation and extortion of their owners by influential parties that may work to pressure them to abandon them at less than their real or estimated prices, suggesting that the state buy them while not allowing other parties to do so, in order to prevent all extortion and exploitation, as he put it.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, the economist estimates the number of properties and real estate of the late President Saddam Hussein only about 600 palaces and real estate, worth the real billions of dollars, as well as thousands of other properties for officials of the former regime and leaders of the Baath Party in various Iraqi provinces.