Solidere - Controversy & Challenges

Controversy & Challenges

Within just a year of Solidere’s establishment, legal challenges were mounted, attempting to halt some of its planned demolitions and questioning its methods of compensating the owners of buildings in its development areas with shares, rather than cash. Allegations emerged that the Hariri family abused power and forced through demolition orders and harassed reluctant owners. The cases of more than 50 former building owners from the downtown area were taken up by Lebanese human rights lawyer Muhamad Mugraby.

In 2007, Mugraby claimed in the Lebanese Daily Star newspaper that “Solidere is a Lebanese form of vigilantism under color of the law. It violates the Constitution, which prohibits the confiscation of property without prompt compensation and only for the public good. Most of the people who were hurt were not strictly the property owners but the occupants or lease holders, whose rights were taken away by law 117 and given to Solidere.”

In addition to raising legal claims, groups of property rights holders from Beirut’s Central District have also called for the legislation which allowed Solidere’s innovative remuneration structure to be declared unconstitutional and annulled, and civil society organizations calling for greater transparency and accountability from Solidere have been among Lebanon’s most vociferous.(http://electronicintifada.net/content/lebanons-politics-real-estate/8412)