Filenews 6 November 2025
The two underage students arrested in Paphos in an ongoing case for illegal possession of drugs and traffic violations have been released.
According to the Police and the data under investigation, last Friday morning the Police were called for a nuisance in a school parking lot. When the members of the force arrived at the scene, they found two young people, aged 16 and 17, riding in a vehicle.
A cigarette box containing a small amount of drugs, specifically 1,2 grams of cannabis, was found thrown at the scene outside the car. When interrogated, the young people reported to the YKAN Offices in Paphos that they had the drugs for their own use.
According to the Police and based on the information they have, the car was allegedly driven to the scene by the 16-year-old. The two young men were arrested before entering the school and were subsequently released with the investigations still ongoing.
In the meantime, according to information from KYPE from the Ministry of Education, there was a mechanism of the Ministry which was activated and information was given to the Paphos Anti-Drug Service. YKAN then proceeded to arrest the two students upon their arrival at the school and before they entered the schoolyard.
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Three different fires broke out in the early hours of Wednesday in abandoned houses in Paphos, without any injuries.
According to the Police, the fires broke out at 1:40 a.m., 2:25 a.m. and 4:10 a.m., in different parts of the city. In all three cases, there were no tenants, while the Fire Service rushed immediately and managed to extinguish the fires, limiting the damage to the buildings.
Members of the Police, as well as officials of the Electromechanical Service, also went to the scene, who are conducting examinations to determine the causes of the fires.
Investigations are ongoing.
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The trial of the German real estate agent, Eva Isabella Kunzel, who faces charges of embezzlement of Greek Cypriot properties in the occupied territories, promoting illegal transactions and money laundering in the period 2023-2024, continued with a new "trial within trial", as to the admissibility of her testimony, on Wednesday before the Permanent Criminal Court of Nicosia.
In a decision on October 8, the Court had ruled as "inadmissible" the evidence that emerged from the search of Kuunzel's luggage upon her arrival in Cyprus. The Prosecution is calling witnesses to prove that the testimony given by the accused after the investigation, which had been ruled illegal, was voluntary.
The first witness was testified by a constable of the Cybercrime Prosecution Branch, who stated that, upon request, she conducted an online search on July 5, 2024, where she located the website of the company "Vepa Immobilien". On the website, which was in German, the defendant was listed as the CEO.
The CD containing the findings of the investigation was then placed on a court computer. The constable presented screen prints from the website, where villas and apartments in the area of Agios Ambrosios, Kyrenia (referred to as "Esentepe") were advertised for sale. The properties belonged to projects with names such as "Olive Trees Villages", "Aelita" and "Albatros", with sales prices ranging from €250,000 to €460,000. In each ad, Eva Kuunzel was listed as the contact person for the company.
The Assistant Police Director of Operations, Marios Papaevriviadis, then gave his testimony, who testified, while traveling from Frankfurt to Cyprus, MEP Geadis Geadis informed him that in the seat next to him was Kuunzel, who introduced herself to him as a real estate agent who trades in real estate in the occupied territories. This information was the trigger for the investigation. Mr. Papaevriviadis confirmed to the court that he recognized the face of the accused in the photos indicated to him by her company's website, then giving instructions for the issuance of an arrest warrant.
During the cross-examination, the defense attorney, Sotiris Argyrou, submitted that neither the CD nor the printouts of the website were indicated to the accused when she received her testimony.
Wednesday's hearing was attended by Ms. Kunzel with the help of an interpreter from Greek to German.
The process will continue on Thursday at 09.30 and Friday at 10.00. The accused remains in custody.
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Cy Mail
Serdal Gunduz, the secretary-general and 30-per-cent shareholder of the now infamous Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTU), was on Thursday sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of a litany of crimes related to the north’s “fake diploma scandal”.
Newspaper Ozgur Gazete reported that northern Nicosia’s high criminal court found that Gunduz had fraudulently obtained money from the university and transferred it to his personal bank account, that he had distributed forged degree certificates to a number of individuals, as well as forging a certificate giving his university permission to open a dentistry school.
Additionally, the court found that tuition fee and student accommodation rent payments had been deposited into personal bank accounts, and that Gunduz had made the university pay for a title deed for real estate he owned privately, while he also used the university’s funds to buy himself furniture.
It also found that he had forged the signature of Ece Uysal, the wife of Turkish MP and KSTU owner Levent Uysal, so as to be able to increase the proportion of shares in the university he owned.
“These crimes are crimes which concern the whole of society. Because of these crimes, the country’s reputation in the education sector has been shaken. Universities are important institutions for our country, and this has damaged their reputation and the country’s reputation,” the court’s decision stated.
It added that Gunduz’s crimes have “deeply shaken the young people who studied diligently and earned degrees” at the KSTU without resorting to forging documents, and that his actions “have led to suspicions and doubts” regarding people who studied and earned degrees at the university.
“Yes, the defendant has paid for the financial losses incurred by others and repaid the money he received. This is a significant mitigating factor, but it does not change the gravity of the crime,” it stated.
Meanwhile, the university’s international office’s manager Amir Shakerifard was also sentenced to six years in prison after it was found that he had “graded himself for 25 courses he did not attend” and recorded that he had passed 13 courses he had in fact failed.
At the end of that process, the court said, Shakerifard received a degree in dentistry and registered himself as a dentist with the north’s ‘health ministry’.
“We are talking about a department which has a very high risk of harming human health. We are taking about a very important department which requires meticulous training, but he did not put any effort into getting an education. This person put in effort to obtain a fake degree,” the court’s decision stated.
The fake diploma scandal rocked the north’s education sector last year, with numerous high-profile figures having been arrested so far and cases now making their way through the courts.
Alongside Gunduz and Shakerifard, former ‘education minister’ Kemal Durust, who served three separate stints in the role between 2009 and 2016, is also set to go on trial for his role in the scandal.
Elsewhere, his wife and high-level civil servant Meray Durust, former chairman of the north’s higher education accreditation authority (Yodak) Turgay Avci and board member Mehmet Hasguler, and Ersin Tatar’s bodyguard Serif Avcil have all also been arrested.
Additionally, a committee comprising five ‘MPs’ was formed to examine a request filed by the north’s chief public prosecutor’s office to lift the immunity of ruling coalition party UBP ‘MP’ Emrah Yesilirmak over his alleged involvement in the scandal, but decided against lifting his immunity.
Yesilirmak received a degree in business administration from the KSTU, with rumours surrounding the possibility it was forged having first surfaced in February last year.
He has insisted throughout the last 13 months that he is innocent, and that while the KSTU may have been involved in crime, he fulfilled his obligations to receive a degree.
