Cancellation of the Minutes for the Transfer of Ekbatan Green Space to the Dar al-Quran

Following protests from a group of residents in the Ekbatan neighborhood in western Tehran against the appropriation of part of the green space, the minutes for the transfer of part of this green space for the construction of a 'Dar al-Quran' have been annulled. According to a report from the ISNA news agency on Thursday, Hossein Saatchi Yazdi, the lawyer for the protesting residents of Ekbatan, announced that the Administrative Justice Court of the country has annulled the minutes for the transfer of this land and it must be returned to its original state. He stated that prior to this ruling, municipal officials had acknowledged that this transfer was a mistake and that actions should be taken to compensate for the lost rights of the people. The lawyer added that with the issuance of this ruling, 'the argument against the municipality has been exhausted, and it is time for the municipality to rectify its mistake.' He also reported that another complaint has been filed against the municipality regarding 'illegal appropriation' and 'destruction of green space.' Mr. Saatchi Yazdi explained that 'our issue is not opposition to the construction of the Dar al-Quran, but that this structure should have been built on land that was not part of the common areas and green space.' The ruling to annul the minutes for the transfer of part of the green space to the Dar al-Quran has become final and definitive, especially since last July, the Administrative Justice Court had also issued an order to halt construction on this land. This construction, based on minutes signed by officials of the fifth district municipality of Tehran in 2013, initially began under the title of constructing a 'cultural space.' However, it did not take long for locals to say that this project had turned into a 'commercial' project for the construction of the 'Dar al-Quran.' This issue led to protests from a group of residents in phase two of the Ekbatan neighborhood, so that protesters gathered every Tuesday in front of the central municipality building in Tehran, demanding the halt of construction and the return of the land to its original condition. The residential complex of blocks 17 and 19 in phase two of the Ekbatan neighborhood also submitted a complaint against the fifth district municipality to the Administrative Justice Court, which led to the suspension of this project in 2015. One of the main points of this complaint was the 'illegal' appropriation of the common areas of phase two of the Ekbatan neighborhood by the fifth district municipality. The plaintiffs had repeatedly stated that they had paid for these common areas and that the municipality had no right to 'appropriate' them.