Tangier Ordered to Pay Millions After Turning French-Owned Land into Cemetery

A French municipality wins its lawsuit against Tanger. The administrative court of Tanger orders the municipality to compensate a French municipality to the tune of 4,200,000 dirhams because it has used half of a land plot, jointly owned by the French community, to set up a cemetery - without its agreement or prior compensation, reports Al Akhbar.

The French municipality had, through its lawyers, filed a complaint against Tanger before the administrative court of the city, accusing it of having illegally exploited a property of more than 7,000 m² that it holds in co-ownership, by transforming it into a public cemetery in the Tanger-Balia area, under the jurisdiction of the Mghogha district. The French municipality had demanded that the municipality of Tanger either restore its land rights or pay financial compensation for the damages suffered. A site survey had then been ordered, in the presence of a bailiff, in order to ascertain the occupation of the land and the extent of the irregularities.

In Tanger, land disputes are legion. Last year, the municipality would have recorded losses of around 420 million dirhams due to unfavorable court decisions related to land disputes and administrative errors, the same source reports. According to a report from the Ombudsman’s Office, the municipality of Tanger is among the public entities most often condemned by the courts, representing 19% of the judgments rendered against public institutions at the national level.