Police case against former volunteer commissioner almost complete

Police said Tuesday they have almost finished an investigation into the former volunteerism commissioner who resigned earlier this year after doubts were raised over the authenticity of his academic qualifications.

Spokesman Christos Andreou said police were still waiting for a reply from a third country regarding the case, otherwise the case file was complete.

“When we have the answer, we will go to court if the offences are substantiated,” the spokesman said.

Police were looking into whether Yiannakis Yiannaki had forged his qualifications after questions were raised by the auditor-general.

In a letter to the chief of police, the auditor-general claimed that Yiannaki did not have a university degree, citing a very low-quality copy of the US university degree that does not provide the anticipated information such as the grade, raising more questions and doubts.

There were also discrepancies in number of years he attended university in various documents in his files.

A photograph of the English translation of Yiannaki’s secondary school diploma was published by various media, showing a mismatch between the grades on several subjects written out in numbers and in letters, i.e in modern Greek, the diploma reads ‘thirteen’ but the number next to it was changed to 19.

Both qualifications were in Yiannaki’s files at the Youth Board of Cyprus where he was first appointed in 1996, securing a permanent job in 2007.

A member of ruling Disy, Yiannaki was appointed commissioner in May 2013 by President Nicos Anastasiades.