Bahrain court adjourns trial of engineers in the dock for forging certificates

TDT | Manama                                                             

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Two men facing trial for allegedly forging bachelor’s degree certificates and secured engineering licences in Bahrain had their trial adjourned after the court granted one of them time to prepare a defence. The suspects - a 36-yearold Bahraini and a 46-year-old Asian national- landed in police custody after authorities spotted a mismatch on their certificates filed for upgrading their engineering licences. Court files say both the men secured their engineering licences, respectively, in 2007 and 2014, using certificates from a university in Pakistan.

However, this time, the Council for Regulating the Practice of Engineering Professions (CRPEP) grew suspicious of the authenticity of their degree certificates filed for upgrading their licences. During scrutiny, officials found that the graduation years on their curriculum vitae and certificates were not in agreement, prompting an inquiry.

For clarifications, the authority approached the university that issued the certificates but found that the pair’s names were not on the university’s roll call. Simultaneously, an enquiry through Bahrain’s embassy in Pakistan also confirmed the certificates as fake.

Meanwhile, the Bahraini customs department told the authority that the Bahraini man hadn’t travelled to Pakistan at the time mentioned in the degree certificates. The CRPEP also conducted a forensic examination of the certificates, only to detect that the official signatures on the certificates were that of the Bahraini man himself. However, during interrogation, the first suspect denied forgery and claimed he had joined the university in 1996.

He also said that he underwent training in the engineering office from 2002 to 2005 and obtained a licence to practice the engineering profession in 2007. The Public Prosecution charged them with forging official documents and cheating a public employee who acted in good faith. Prosecutors also charged them with forging documents to practice the profession in the Kingdom without necessary qualifications.