ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish man from Kirkuk’s Topzawa village was sentenced to six months in prison earlier this week after a complaint by the Iraqi army accused him of building a house on land it claims belongs to the defense ministry. The execution of the sentence was suspended due to the man’s age and clean criminal record, he told Rudaw on Thursday.
Ibrahim Topzawayi said the disputed land was originally owned by his family but was seized during the Baathist regime’s reign.
"In my first court session, I was released on bail of 3 million dinars [about $2,290], but in the final session [on Monday] the judge decided on six months imprisonment and suspended the execution of the sentence, because I have no criminal record and my age is not suitable for such a sentence,” he told Rudaw.
Topzawa, a Kurdish village in Kirkuk province, was one of the areas Arabized by decree of the Baath Supreme Revolutionary Court.
According to Topzawayi and local officials, the 11th Division of the Iraqi Army has filed complaints against 17 other villagers - 13 of them farmers - accusing them of encroaching on five land plots that the defense ministry claims ownership of.
Sati’ Nasih, a representative of the Topzawa farmers, told Rudaw on Thursday that “the other 17 people… have been summoned by the police station on the same case, but the court has so far only processed one case."
Nasih said the complaints were filed in 2024 and claim the area is intended for a future army base. “Those houses have been built for 18 years, and the area of those lands in dispute is about 60 dunums,” he added.
A dunam is 1,000 square meters.
Sabah Habib, a Kurdish member of Iraq’s parliament from Kirkuk, told Rudaw that the lands in question should have been returned to their original owners under a law passed in January that annulled Baath-era property decisions. “But until now the implementation guidelines for that law have not been issued by the [Iraqi] Council of Ministers,” he said.
Iraq’s parliament passed the land restitution bill on January 21. It seeks to return properties taken from Kurdish and Turkmen citizens and granted to Arab settlers under the Baathist regime. The law followed a July 2023 decision by the Council of Ministers to revoke decrees from the Baath Revolutionary Command Council.
Abdullah Mirwais, a member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council and head of its agriculture committee, told Rudaw the sentence against Topzawayi represents a “dangerous” precedent, since the law meant to return the land has not yet been enforced. He said the committee tasked with drafting the law’s implementation guidelines has completed its work and is waiting for the prime minister’s approval.
Oil-rich and ethnically diverse Kirkuk remains one of Iraq’s most contested areas between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government. The province saw widespread land confiscations under Saddam Hussein’s Arabization policy, with Article 140 of Iraq’s post-2003 constitution mandating their reversal - a process that remains incomplete.
Hastyar Qadir contributed to this article.
