Former Turkish Cypriot Famagusta police chief back in court over ‘fake diploma scandal’

Former Turkish Cypriot Famagusta police chief Baris Sel appeared in court on Friday in the latest hearing of his trial regarding a master’s degree he obtained, allegedly under false pretences, from Morphou’s now infamous Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTU).

He faces a total of 20 charges, and remains on bail, with his next hearing set to take place on April 13.

Previously, he had said the north’s now retired police chief Kasim Kuni had conspired against him and told the court that “mud is being thrown at me”.

The fake diploma scandal has rocked the north’s education sector in recent years, with numerous high-profile figures having been arrested so far and cases now making their way through the courts.

Serdal Gunduz, the KSTU’s former secretary-general, was last November sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of a litany of crimes related to the scandal, while former ‘education minister’ Kemal Durust, who served three separate stints in the role between 2009 and 2016, is also set to face a trial.

At present, the most high-profile court case is that of Fatma Unal, a close personal associate of the north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel, with it having been alleged in court during that trial that the north’s ‘parliament speaker’ Ziya Ozturkler also committed criminal wrongdoing.

While no indictment has yet been forthcoming for Ozturkler, a key witness in Unal’s case said Ozturkler had coerced university employees into awarding Unal the degree and then naturalised the people he had coerced as ‘TRNC’ citizens. He was reported to the police over the matter last month.