Casablanca: Justice and the Interior Ministry face a troubled land transfer

Three inspectors from the General Inspectorate of the Ministry of the Interior (IGAT) conducted a 10-day urgent verification mission in the economic capital. The investigation is focusing on the Aïn Sebaâ district, where the transfer of ownership of a strategic municipal property parcel to a private real estate company is causing turmoil. Elected officials and civil servants, including a retiree, have been questioned to elucidate the procedures of this transfer.

The case is based on a flagrant documentary contradiction concerning land title No. 8447/C. An initial property certificate classified this one-and-a-half-hectare plot as a "green space" according to a 2000 plan, providing for its return to the municipality. However, a subsequent document mysteriously removed this mention to qualify the lot as "bare land." This reclassification of the land allowed the property to be returned to the real estate company, depriving the neighborhood of an urban green space.

The case took on a major judicial dimension on April 3, 2025, when the Casablanca Administrative Court ordered the land registrar to remove the municipality’s name from the title. The owning company based its action on a 2017 Court of Cassation ruling that had canceled the development plan for the area. The courts ruled that the designation as a green space was now devoid of legal support, forcing the administration to cede the property.

The Interior Ministry’s intervention is now aimed at identifying internal administrative responsibilities. The audit seeks to determine whether the municipal services failed in defending the public domain or if deliberate document manipulations facilitated the recovery of the property by the private sector. The administrative investigation is therefore now focused on understanding how a plot of land of such strategic importance could have escaped the control of the municipality in recent years.