Two men on trial in Bahrain for securing engineering jobs with fake certificates

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Two men, both of whom are engineers, are in the dock for allegedly forging their bachelor's degree certificates after officials spotted a mismatch on their certificates filed for upgrading their engineering licences.

The men, a 36-year-old Bahraini and a 46-year-old Asian national are on trial before the High Criminal Court. The Bahraini man secured his engineering licence in 2007 and the Asian man in 2014 by allegedly submitting a certificate from a university in Pakistan.

However, the Council for Regulating the Practice of Engineering Professions grew suspicious of the Bahraini man's certificate upon spotting a mismatch between the graduation year in his curriculum vitae and his graduation certificate, while reviewing an application to upgrade his licence. Officials then recommended a detailed enquiry and approached the university for clarifications.

The university, in its reply, confirmed to authorities that the pair's names are not on its students' lists. An enquiry through the Bahraini embassy in Pakistan also confirmed the certificates as fake. Meanwhile, the Bahraini customs department found that the Bahraini man hadn't travelled to Pakistan at the time of obtaining the degree.

The Council then decided to conduct a forensic examination of the certificates, only to detect the signatures on the certificates were that of the Bahraini man himself. However, when questioned, the first suspect denied any wrongdoing and claimed to have joined the university in 1996. "Pursuantly, I underwent training in the engineering office from 2002 to 2005," he told investigators.

The man also said he is authorised to practice the profession, citing the licence received in 2007. The Public Prosecution charged them with forging official documents and cheating a public employee who helped them in good faith. The prosecution also charged them with forging documents to practice a profession without necessary qualifications.