The Commission for Investigation and Prosecution in Madina is scheduled today to look into the case of a female Saudi citizen, Umm Majed, who has refused for several months now to vacate her ramshackle house in Al-Jabbour District. Madina Mayoralty intends to expropriate her house in order to complete a service project. Umm Majed has demanded a re-evaluation and has refused the compensation she has been offered to vacate the house, which is located some meters from the Madina Mayoralty Building. Umm Majed and her seven children have been staying in the house since the death of her husband 18 months ago. “The plan for reorganizing the district is under way and we were notified that part of the house would be demolished to construct a 30-meter-wide road and that we would be compensated for the part of the house that will be demolished,” she said. “Once the plan is actually implemented, we learned that 69 square meters would be taken from the 290 square meters, which is the area of the house. The authorities offered compensation of SR190,000 for the part of the house that they intended to demolish,” Umm Majed explained. “It then turned out that they wanted to demolish the entire house and compensate us for the remaining area. They left us with barely 160 square meters, as they needed more space for the pavement. Faced with this situation, we objected to the demolition and stuck to our demand to have the property re-evaluated because the compensation they have offered to pay us is insufficient to build a house on the remaining area of land or to purchase a plot of land to build a house for me and my children,” she said. “After we refused to vacate, we wrote to our authorized representative asking him to visit the municipality to inform them of our rejection of the compensation,” Umm Majed added. “At the same time, the Mayoralty is insisting on our vacating the house immediately, otherwise the case will be referred to the police,” she said, adding that “the case actually was referred to Al-Azizia Police Station which asked the authorized representative to sign an undertaking that we would vacate the house so that the concerned authorities could demolish it. However, the representative refused to sign an undertaking that would lead to the displacement of my children, unless he got my approval,” Umm Majed said. The police referred the case last Monday to the branch of the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution which accused the family's representative of encouraging the family to refuse to vacate the house. Asked about the possibility of re-evaluating the value of the house, Engineer Tariq Al-Dewali, Deputy Mayor of Madina, said, “The Expropriation Assessment Committee comprising several government agencies, such as, the Emirate, Mayoralty, Ministry of Finance, and specialists in this field sets the compensation amount, which is based on the expropriated area. If the Saudi citizen refuses to vacate her house, the mayoralty refers the matter to the Emirate which directs the concerned authority to take the appropriate measures.” He stressed that state regulations protect the rights of the male or female citizen in such cases. Asked about his opinion of the case, Col. Rabeh Al-Harbi, Director of Al-Azizia Police Station, said the police are an executive department that carry out orders ensuring the vacating of expropriated property. However, the house owner is not forced to vacate, and he or she can file an objection.
