Sulaymaniyah: seizure of state land and municipal property, a 2022 campaign by the municipality and security forces, and 20 municipal staff suspended

In August 2022 the director of Sulaymaniyah municipality, Layla Omar, said some people backed by influential figures had become a 'mafia' that took control of municipal land and shops, interfered in public auctions and imposed payments, and that she had rejected 78 investment projects because the land had already been sold or the site was unsuitable. Elite security forces were deployed around the municipality on the order of PUK leader Bafel Talabani, who warned party and government officials against using their posts to take public land. Kurdistan MP Ali Hama Salih said he had submitted files on the seizure of 45,000 residential plots; MP Daban Mohammed said land sales in Sulaymaniyah exceeded USD 2 billion. In September 2022 Shafaq News reported, citing a source, the arrest of a housing developer and of municipal officials and staff accused of seizing land or easing illegal procedures. On 19 October 2022 the municipality director suspended 16 engineers and 4 employees and surveyors after a letter from the Sulaymaniyah Asayish that followed their questioning in corruption files. No court rulings are on record.