Sunday 17 / November / 2024
Muscat: Between 2010 and 2016, Omani authorities uncovered 1200 cases where people tried to use a forged document. Last year that number dropped to just five, authorities have revealed.
The Ministry of Higher Education has also reported that all of the false certificates seized were issued outside the Sultanate.
Rasha Al Abdali, the representative of Public Prosecution, said: “According to Public Prosecution statistics, only five false certificates were discovered in 2017 while six were discovered in 2016. This means that the number of false certificates has decreased but it cannot be eliminated permanently.”
He added: “The legal system has identified a number of procedures to deal with forged certificates. After the fraud is discovered by the Ministry of Higher Education or any of the other institutions concerned, it gets addressed by the Public Prosecution. The Prosecutor’s Office then sends these certificates to the Department of Investigation and Prosecution as they are the designated authorities who investigate these crimes.”
Article 183 of the Omani Penal Code states that cases where people deal in or forge official documents “shall be punishable by imprisonment for a period of not less than three years, and not more than five years for those who use false official papers knowing that they are false.”
Anyone who knowingly uses a fraudulent, non-government document can face a jail term of between three months and two years, according to Penal Code Article 184.
The cases of fraud vary between forgery of stamps and documents and cases of falsification of educational certificates to certificates issued by fake educational institutions. All the universities that are recognised by the ministry are available on the ministry’s website and are updated constantly.
