Twelve targeted in Albanian land fraud case

A court in Albania has ordered restrictions against 12 people suspected of illegally transferring state-owned land.

The case involves former property registration officials and people accused of benefiting from altered land records.

Prosecutors are investigating forgery, fraud, abuse of office and money laundering.

The case began after major irregularities were found in property registers in the port city of Durres.

Of 1,063 registers checked, only 152 were in order. The rest had missing, replaced, duplicated or damaged pages.

Investigators suspect the records were altered to move state land into private hands.