The north’s ‘interior ministry’ on Thursday requested that Meray Durust, who is currently working as a civil servant despite being on bail for allegedly forging documents, be suspended from her post.

Durust had been working as director of the north’s ‘labour ministry’ until shortly after her arrest alongside her husband and former ‘education minister’ Kemal Durust in February.

She stands accused of having falsely obtained a degree from the now-infamous Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTU) in Morphou.

Two weeks after Meray Durust’s arrest, ‘labour minister’ Sadik Gardiyanoglu announced Durust had been handed a new public sector role.

“Bureaucrats relieved of their duties return to their former duties, and Durust, who served as a civil servant in the Morphou District Governor’s office, has returned there to continue in her old position,” he said.

Meanwhile, two relatives of Ersin Tatar’s bodyguard Serif Avcil, who was arrested on Friday as part of the same investigation, have also now been arrested.

One of the pair was found to be in possession of a certificate of study from the KSTU, while the other has a degree certificate from a four-year undergraduate programme.

Both were remanded in custody for a single day.

Avcil himself most recently appeared in court on Tuesday, with police sergeant Bilger Koral saying Avcil had claimed to have “lost his phone on the way to the police station”.

He had been contacted by telephone to be summoned to the station, but when police asked for the same phone as evidence, he said he had lost it.