Yiannaki also faces charges of forging letter of recommendation

Former volunteerism commissioner Yiannis Yiannaki will appear in court on June 9 to answer charges of forging his academic documents, an allegation which led him to resign from his post in 2021 amid a police investigation.

The Cyprus News Agency reported on Thursday that Yiannaki will also be charged with forging a letter of recommendation.

Yiannaki, who faces eight charges, hit headlines in May 2021 after local media revealed he had been at the centre of a probe triggered by allegations he had forged his high school and university diplomas.

Daily Phileleftheros also published a photograph of the English translation of Yiannaki’s secondary school diploma, which showed a mismatch between the grades of several subjects written out in numbers and in letters, suggesting they had been tampered with.

The newspaper also said the degree he allegedly obtained from a US university also appears to be problematic.

Moreover, the latest accusation relates to an alleged forged letter of recommendation before taking office at the Youth Board of Cyprus (Onek), where he was first appointed in 1996, securing a permanent job in 2007.  President Anastasiades appointed him commissioner in May 2013.

In his letter to the chief of police, auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides had said that after an anonymous complaint claiming that Yiannaki does not have a university degree, his office had carried out checks of his files at Onek and found that the English translation of Yiannaki’s secondary school diploma had been tampered with.

For example, for modern Greek, the diploma reads ‘thirteen’ but the number next to it has been changed to 19. Under the subject ‘English’, it was also written out as ‘Thirteen’ but the number next to it said ‘19’. In both instances, it appears the 3 in the 13 had been crudely changed to a 9.

His overall grade also appeared to have been amended.