Serdal Gunduz, the secretary-general and 30-per-cent shareholder of the now infamous Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTU), was on Thursday sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of a litany of crimes related to the north’s “fake diploma scandal”.

Newspaper Ozgur Gazete reported that northern Nicosia’s high criminal court found that Gunduz had fraudulently obtained money from the university and transferred it to his personal bank account, that he had distributed forged degree certificates to a number of individuals, as well as forging a certificate giving his university permission to open a dentistry school.

Additionally, the court found that tuition fee and student accommodation rent payments had been deposited into personal bank accounts, and that Gunduz had made the university pay for a title deed for real estate he owned privately, while he also used the university’s funds to buy himself furniture.

It also found that he had forged the signature of Ece Uysal, the wife of Turkish MP and KSTU owner Levent Uysal, so as to be able to increase the proportion of shares in the university he owned.

“These crimes are crimes which concern the whole of society. Because of these crimes, the country’s reputation in the education sector has been shaken. Universities are important institutions for our country, and this has damaged their reputation and the country’s reputation,” the court’s decision stated.

It added that Gunduz’s crimes have “deeply shaken the young people who studied diligently and earned degrees” at the KSTU without resorting to forging documents, and that his actions “have led to suspicions and doubts” regarding people who studied and earned degrees at the university.

“Yes, the defendant has paid for the financial losses incurred by others and repaid the money he received. This is a significant mitigating factor, but it does not change the gravity of the crime,” it stated.

Meanwhile, the university’s international office’s manager Amir Shakerifard was also sentenced to six years in prison after it was found that he had “graded himself for 25 courses he did not attend” and recorded that he had passed 13 courses he had in fact failed.

At the end of that process, the court said, Shakerifard received a degree in dentistry and registered himself as a dentist with the north’s ‘health ministry’.

“We are talking about a department which has a very high risk of harming human health. We are taking about a very important department which requires meticulous training, but he did not put any effort into getting an education. This person put in effort to obtain a fake degree,” the court’s decision stated.

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

Alongside Gunduz and Shakerifard, former ‘education minister’ Kemal Durust, who served three separate stints in the role between 2009 and 2016, is also set to go on trial for his role in the scandal.

Elsewhere, 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 have all also been arrested.

Additionally, a committee comprising five ‘MPs’ was formed to examine a request filed by the north’s chief public prosecutor’s office to lift the immunity of ruling coalition party UBP ‘MP’ Emrah Yesilirmak over his alleged involvement in the scandal, but decided against lifting his immunity.

Yesilirmak received a degree in business administration from the KSTU, with rumours surrounding the possibility it was forged having first surfaced in February last year.

He has insisted throughout the last 13 months that he is innocent, and that while the KSTU may have been involved in crime, he fulfilled his obligations to receive a degree.