The court took the move after the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) investigated the case and filed corruption charges against the allegedly illegally transferred properties for most of which the concerned authorities had issued title deeds.

The transfer fraud involves a total of  204764 sq.m. plots of land in the metropolis, of which 176, 610sq.m. is estimated to be worth over half a billion birr,  according to the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission’s (FEACC) latest report obtained by The Reporter.

The Commission has investigated thirteen cases associated with the alleged crime where 52 suspects are currently under police custody in connection with the reported scandal, the report indicated.

The commission has been over the last few years probing into similar corruption offences involving illegal transfer of land specially after the May 2005 election when plots of land worth billions of birr in the city had fallen into the hands of a number of individuals illegally.

Over the last two years and a half, properties worth billions of birr, including lands which were illegally transferred to individuals, were confiscated after the ruling of the federal court.

The reported crimes, against which the Commission has been pressing charges, involve the acquisition of land in illegal ways and means, the gold scam at the National Bank of Ethiopia and a number of other offences, according to the Commission.