Who benefits from this persistent persecution?
your highness the prime minister, your excellency the first deputy prime minister, i address you with sincere wishes for success in your duties. i hope you will give the topics raised in this week’s articles the serious attention they deserve for the sake of the public interest, humanity, and common sense.
never before have such rulings been issued as those handed down to the hundreds of citizens who fell victim to the “souk al-manakh” scheme, each of whom, at one point, had debts exceeding their assets.
the legislature not only declared them bankrupt but also placed their assets under guardianship, causing harm to their business partners. moreover, it imposed an unprecedented accumulated interest rate of 15 percent annually unlawfully, inhumanely, and illogically.
thus, they became victims of the law forever. the interest alone consumed any increase in the value of their assets, trapping them in bankruptcy as if they were criminals undeserving of mercy. their punishment has lasted for more than thirty years, even beyond the deaths of many of them.
the state, through the debt management authority’s employees, continues to control their assets, preventing their heirs and solvent partners from managing these funds.
if any authority were to review the original debts of each bankrupt individual, it would reveal the full extent of the harm caused by the high rate of vindictive interest.
were it not for the accumulation of this interest, most would have been able to recover from bankruptcy, especially given the increase in their assets over the past three decades.
yet, the debt management authority maintains control over their bank accounts to this day.
* * *
there is no clearer example of the damage suffered by those declared bankrupt, and the ongoing harm to their remaining partners, than the story of a large, well-known joint-stock industrial company founded forty years ago. due to the souk al-manakh case, two of its shareholders, who together owned 60 percent of the shares, were declared bankrupt.
more than thirty years ago, the debt management authority replaced them on the board of directors. since then, the company has been managed by a government employee who imposed his decisions on the remaining shareholders, who had no connection to the souk almanakh case or the bankruptcies.
this director refused to act on behalf of the bankrupt shareholders, many of whom have since passed away. he also prevented the remaining partners from selling their shares, refused to sell any company assets, and blocked any efforts to develop or expand the business.
what happened to this company reflects the situation of many other once-successful companies still controlled in similar ways by government representatives.
* * *
your excellency the prime minister and your excellency the first deputy prime minister, i believe you are the most qualified and capable to bring an end to this grave injustice by resolving this long-standing case. letting these wounds remain open and bleeding for over thirty years is an unprecedented punishment that should be unacceptable to you. if these individuals were hardened criminals or murderers, most of them would be free by now.
