Syriac Church calls on Abbas to punish land fraud

Officials in the Syriac Orthodox church on Monday called on President Abbas to punish fraud in land sales, after it was discovered that lawyers had cheated the church while purchasing land.Father Butros Nimeh, a Syriac priest, told Ma'an Monday that the church had bought land in Bethlehem and Jerusalem several years ago and recently decided to sell it the Syriac community to use for housing and a community center.When the church went to collect the land deed to transfer to the community it found that the lawyers had not registered the land as belonging to the church, Saliba Danho, a member of the Syriac community, told Ma'an.Father Butros accused the lawyers, who are from Bethlehem, of forging sale documents and selling the land to Israel. He called for immediate legal action against the lawyers.Several prominent officials, including the mayor of Bethlehem Vera Baboun, demonstrated on Sunday in support of the church and called for those who cheated the church to be punished.