Egypt says its universities not involved in forged certificates controversy in Kuwait

The Egyptian government said Egyptian universities have not issued forged certificates to individuals working in Kuwait, Anadolu Agency reported.

Last July, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Higher Education announced that it discovered forged university certificates issued from an Arab state, adding that it arrested an Egyptian expat working for the ministry for his involvement in the crime.

On July 23, Kuwaiti prosecutors ordered the detention of the Egyptian suspect for 21 days on remand.

In response, the Egyptian Cabinet Council has said in a statement on Tuesday that its Ministry of Higher Education has not issued any forged certificates for Kuwaiti students at neither the undergraduate or graduate levels.

“The issue in question now relates to the involvement of individuals in issuing fake certificates that have no reference in Egyptian universities at all,” the cabinet’s statement went on.

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“Egyptian universities are not a party to this issue, and when it [the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education] was asked by the Kuwaiti side about the certificates’ authenticity, it said that they [the certificates] were forged and fake.”

The ministry also said that it has recently upgraded the printing of its certificates in line with high-tech methods to made them harder to forge.

This is not the first time the Kuwaiti government has announced detecting forged certificates, but it could be the largest such case with the number of detected forged certificates ranging between 400 and 1000, according to Anadolu Agency.

Last year, the Kuwaiti government arrested a Kuwaiti citizen for selling forged certificates in return for $12,000, paid in instalments, for each certificate.

In July 2016, the government also referred 270 suspects to prosecutors over similar accusations.