Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The public Prosecution has recalled that its duty does not involve revealing the truth when it comes to governmental bodies, so it was quick to release a statement attempting to convince the public that the Ministry of Education is doing its job regarding the issue of the fake degrees and diplomas to cover up a former "hasty statement" where it denied receiving any report regarding forged degrees from the Ministry.

This story goes back to August 20, 2018 when the "public prosecution" revealed that it did not receive any news regarding what had been published in a local newspaper under the title "The Ministry refers certificate counterfeiters to the Public Prosecution".

Ahmed Al-Qurashi, Head of the Public Prosecutor's Technical Office, said that the "the Prosecution did not receive any reports about this incident for the time being and up until this date, no information was referred to the prosecution regarding any similar issue except one incident five years ago".

Five years ago?! The incident at the time was related to Delmon University, as the Ministry of Education filed a report about suspicion of tampering of student diplomas and forgery of official student university documents. Two officials were charged with the crime of forging certificates by modifying grades.

So what does this have to do with the issue of forged degrees, which the public is actively working on revealing and exposing those behind it, for the Ministry to inform a local newspaper that it referred the case to the Prosecution? Why is the Ministry confusing matters instead of actually investigating these cases and convicting the people behind them? Why hasn't the public prosecution already investigated well-known public figures associated with fake fraudulent academic institutions such as "Lahaye University"?

If the ministry has an interest in protecting these forgers, why is the prosecution doing that as well only to reiterate 9 days later what Al-Qurashi stated, saying that "the Ministry of Education has informed the Public Prosecution in the past years until February 2018 of attempts of a number of students to adopt procedures to obtain academic qualifications without meeting the required rules and terms?"

This seems to be part of the mission of the man who holds a degree in "protecting spies" Ahmed Al-Hammadi, as well as covering up corruption, and with this statement he wants to cover for former officer Majed Al-Nuaimi's faults, in addition to erasing the traces of Al-Qurashi's statement, thinking that he could convince people that Al-Nuaimi and his team are doing a good job in addressing the forgery issue. He attempted to deliberately mix up between public figures holding degrees from universities that don't exist, or fake universities that only have a website, and students holding official degrees which they asked to be equated by the Ministry. These degrees were not equated for academic reasons that differ from one country to another or because of certain conditions in the Bahraini law.

Day after day, they become more convinced that no one should ever cast the first stone because no one knows when a stone may be cast upon him/her instead. All the officials are interested in maintaining the status quo and protecting their network of intertwining interests. The public prosecution was established following a nominal operation which was known as the reformative project at the time to become a branch under the authority of the Ministry of Interior. No one would expect the ministry would move against the official current with regards to the issue of forged degrees.

Theft Cover Up

This issue reminds us of the time how the public prosecution dealt with the reports of the National Audit Office, which were full of corruption. In one statement former attorney-general Abdulrahman Al-Sayed said on April 26, 2015 that the prosecution had received reports from the National Audit Office which were previously referred from the parliament in accordance with a decision that was made during a session on April 14, 2015. He continued to say that the prosecution was working on studying the decision to determine the facts surrounding these crimes and it is committed to investigating them in accordance with the law.

As revealed by this statement, the public prosecution only received the report after a parliamentary decision and did not even request a copy of the National Audit Office report as if the matter didn't concern it. Also, as shown by Al-Sayed's statement, the prosecution decided to work on studying the report to determine the violations which require investigation. However, it seems that the prosecution is still working on it to this day!

The prosecution has shied away when it comes to tracking corruption in the royal family, and hasn't even revealed a portion of the corruption and wastage that's going on in the ministries and government agencies. The judicial body has taken the role of the spectator since the issuance of the first report in 2013 and the prosecution hasn't made any move.

The prosecution in Bahrain only takes action when it comes to persecuting those who demand a fair distribution of the country's wealth and power. Even those who say that the judicial system is independent are now whispering among themselves behind closed doors that this corruption and forgery couldn't be revealed by a public prosecution working under the executive authority.

Arabic Version