Muscat: The Muscat Appeal Court on Monday acquitted 23 people accused in the Duqm land scam. The Muscat Criminal Court had found the former government officials guilty of abusing their power in distributing plots of land in Duqm province in February 2014.
The former Undersecretary of Housing and former Secretary-General of the dissolved Supreme Committee for Town Planning were sentenced to three years in jail and slapped with a fine of 100 rials (Dh954) fine.
The other 21 accused were sentenced to one year in jail and fined 100 rials. The governor of Duqm, officials from the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources, and director-generals at the ministry were among those convicted in what has been known in the local media as the Duqm land plots scam.
The titles for the plots had been seized earlier by royal decree. Despite overturning the earlier conviction, the Appeals Court did not order the return of the plots to their owners, as they have been designated for use in the Duqm Special Economic Zone, and ruled instead for compensation.
The case dates back to when the Public Prosecution summoned the accused after receiving a report from the Financial and Administrative Audit Control. The report mentioned irregularities in granting plots of land in Duqm, which is undergoing major development and is home to mega projects. Those plots were located within the boundaries of the Duqm Port project and expropriated in the public interest as per royal decree No 85/2006. These plots, estimated to number more than 2,000, were obtained as grants and compensation for land expropriated by the government for projects.
