Serdal Gunduz, the secretary-general and 30-per-cent shareholder of Morphou’s Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTU), on Wednesday pointed the finger at ‘MPs’ from the north’s largest party the UBP for the slow pace of ongoing investigations into the “fake diploma scandal”.

“Do you know why the issue is not progressing? It is not progressing because the end result is based on UBP MPs,” he said on his way into court.

“Bribes have been taken. None of them are there. They only speak about the diplomas. There is no signature of mine on any of the fake diplomas, but I have been in prison for a year. Why do they not give me bail? I am going to escape, apparently. Am I stupid enough to leave my share in the university and escape? Half of Kazivera is mine!”

He added that the UBP ‘MPs’ aim is “to destroy Serdal Gunduz, which they did.

“Now they want to destroy my family, because there is a need for a scapegoat, and that scapegoat is me!”

He then claimed there are some ‘MPs’ who “stay at the universities every week, have breakfast there on Sundays, have meals there on Fridays, and get drunk with [former UBP ‘education minister’ and fellow arrestee] Kemal Durust upstairs”.

“I want to be tried fairly. While everyone else is out on bail, I am in prison. Why? Because they do not want me to talk. Because if I talk, too many rocks will move. They are aware of this. They will either kill me in prison or kill me in the prison transport vehicle while I am going back and forth on the road,” he said.

On this matter, he then pre-emptively said that should anything happen to him, the person responsible is Turkish MP from ruling alliance party the MHP and KSTU majority owner Levent Uysal.

“If anything happens to me in prison or outside, the person responsible is Levent Uysal. The person who carried out this operation from start to end is Levent Uysal,” he said, before requesting that former Turkish Cypriot chief negotiator for the Cyprus problem Kudret Ozersay be present at his next court hearing.

Ozersay had last week disclosed that he had submitted a written question to the north’s chief public prosecutor’s office asking why, despite it having said that case files linked to an ‘MP’ would be presented to the office months ago, they are still yet to arrive.

Gunduz was not in the dock for Wednesday’s hearing, but was present as a witness to the case against the north’s Famagusta police chief Baris Sel.

Sel was arrested in March last year, accused of having obtained a master’s degree in business administration from the KSTU. However, he denies his degree is fake and said at a previous hearing that the north’s chief of police Kasim Kuni had conspired against him.

“I have no intention of running away, I have worked in this profession for 27 years and mud is being thrown at me,” he said, adding that he had written a thesis and submitted it to Gunduz.

Gunduz was arrested in March last year and has remained in custody ever since, with the court ruling that he was a flight risk as he holds residence permits in both Greece and Russia.

He stands accused of preparing forged documents, putting them into circulation, and encouraging others to do the same.

He is just one of numerous high-profile figures to have been arrested in connection with the scandal, with Kemal Durust, his wife and high-level civil servant Meray Durust, former chairman of the north’s higher education accreditation authority (Yodak) Turgay Avci and board member Mehmet Hasguler, and Ersin Tatar’s bodyguard Serif Avcil having all also been arrested.

Late last year, Yodak’s application to continue its affiliate membership of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (Enqa) was not accepted, with the north’s universities effectively set to lose their international recognition if this is not resolved.

Current Yodak chairman Aykut Hocanin said on November that the issue “must be resolved” before a scheduled Enqa members’ forum in Paphos in April, as if the decision is taken at that forum, “it is likely that such a decision will be negative there”.

“Enqa membership is important. In order to achieve accreditation in European standards, to follow quality processes, to be in a knowledge network with them, and for Yodak to be able to provide accreditation in European standards, it is necessary that we are a member of this organisation,” he said.