Court hearing in the fake diplomas case continues in Guzelyurt: Fatma Yunal appears in court

In Guzelyurt, Northern Cyprus, the hearing in the case of Fatma Yunal, accused in the fake diplomas case, continued on 5 February; this marked the seventh appearance of the case before the Guzelyurt District Court.

At the hearing, investigator from the Financial Crimes Unit, police officer Bilger Koral, presented numerous material pieces of evidence. On a computer belonging to Serdal Gündüz, who had previously been sentenced to one year in prison and is listed among the university’s partners, an article attributed to Speaker of Parliament Ziya Öztürkler was found.

According to the case materials, email correspondence between Serdal Gündüz and the then dean contained information about a doctoral program, and Yunal, contrary to her earlier statements, expressed an intention to obtain a doctoral degree. As evidence, a 500-gigabyte hard drive containing emails, as well as printed copies of the correspondence, were included in the case file.

According to the presented telephone data, there were nine conversations between Yunal and Gündüz; calls between Gündüz and Ziya Öztürkler were also recorded. These records were confirmed by documents from GSM operators. According to the prosecution, after these conversations Gündüz contacted the academic office requesting the issuance of a diploma, and on the same day Ziya Öztürkler himself also contacted him.

The case materials note that in the academic records some of Yunal’s grades were initially recorded as “FF” and later changed; witness Arcan Sığırçı previously stated that the changes were made on Gündüz’s instructions. More than 40 pieces of material evidence were submitted to the court, and the student is listed as receiving a full scholarship.

The defendant’s lawyer, Doğa Zeki, requested time for cross-examination due to the length of the testimony and the large volume of evidence. The court granted the request and adjourned the hearing; the next session is scheduled for 16 February.