Bahrain Mirror: Lawyer Fatima Al-Hawaj said that institutions that helped Bahrainis receive forged degree started to blackmail them as this educational scandal became widespread.

Al-Hawaj said "the swindlers who forged the certificates used the scandal in their favor. They contacted the holders of false certificates, asked them to pay extremely high sums or else get reported to official authorities."

"The owners of the fraudulent markets have started extorting money from the owners of fake certificates via remittances, this extortion is a crime punishable by the law with imprisonment not to mention the forgery charge," she added.

She addressed what she described as the "owners of the shops of forgery", saying: "By collecting sums of money as a result of the crime of forging university certificates, you have committed the offence of laundering money and its penalty is imprisonment, excluding the first crime"

The lawyer warned the owners of fraudulent certificates of responding to the blackmail and payment, explaining that "this extortion is a crime punishable by the law with imprisonment".

Al-Hawaj concluded her tweets by saying, "the crimes committed by the shops of forgery, although committed outside the territory of Bahrain, apply to the Penal Code, with the presence of their partner in crime on Bahraini territory," she stated, noting that they "can be apprehended through Interpol."

Arabic Version