The Nicosia Assize Court has convicted Fatma Ünal, former chairwoman of the UBP Kyrenia Women's Branch, on all 16 counts brought against her in connection with a fake diploma investigation at the Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTÜ), sentencing her to five years in prison.
Over the course of the trial, the court heard testimony from 31 witnesses and examined 80 items of evidence. Presiding Judge Füsun Cemaller announced that all charges had been proven beyond reasonable doubt, stating that Ünal had been found to have obtained fraudulent transcripts, a fake provisional graduation certificate, a forged diploma and a fabricated thesis.
The charges included forgery of official documents, circulation of forged official documents, incitement to forge official documents and unauthorised issuance of documents. The defence had argued that no physical diploma existed and that the charges had not been proven to the required standard, but the court rejected those arguments.
In delivering the sentence, Cemaller noted that the offence of forging official documents carries a maximum penalty of ten years' imprisonment. She stressed that Ünal had obtained a master's degree with thesis despite having undertaken no genuine study, describing the conduct as an act of deception against society. "Our country has been deeply wounded by these crimes," she said, adding that such misconduct casts suspicion on graduates who have legitimately earned their qualifications and causes serious reputational damage to universities across Northern Cyprus.
The defence counsel had urged the court to treat Ünal's clean criminal record, her role as a business owner and her standing as a community figure as mitigating factors. Tensions were reported in the courthouse corridors both before and after the hearing, with altercations between the defendant's relatives and members of the press.
