The Minister of Education and Higher Education Abbas Al-Halabi confirmed that his ministry has taken legal and administrative measures to deal and verify the file of granting fake certificates to Iraqi students by Lebanese universities.

He indicated in his first statement after appointing an investigative committee on this issue, and the suspicions about selling and trading them, that “the ministry has taken administrative and legal measures, and the dimensions of the case have been presented to the Parliamentary Education Committee.”

Al-Halabi explained, “This file is under follow-up and is today in the processing stage, so it is currently refraining from making any statement, because the required elements and data have not yet been completed,” noting that “the Ministry is keen on the reputation of Lebanon’s universities, their certificates, and the students who are duly registered in them.”

He explained that “he is actively communicating with his Iraqi counterpart, to boycott the information, and cooperate to reach the conclusions of this file,” stressing that “if necessary, he will go to Baghdad to discuss this issue.”

He pointed out that “forging certificates is a criminal offense that the ministry can pursue, in addition to disciplinary penalties that include financial fines, which amount to closing the complicit university and not recognizing it.”

Al-Halabi stressed that “the student, the university, and the mediator (the broker) will be prosecuted legally if the process of forging certificates is proven,” considering that “it is not acceptable to neglect the reputation of Lebanese universities and their prestigious certificates.”