Police in Qassim have seized a factory for fake academic documents in Qassim province and arrested a university professor and his daughter who were involved.
More than 16,000 fake certificates contained the names of local and international universities, said Col. Fahd Al-Habdan, spokesman for Qassim police department.
Found in the factory were machines used to make the fake certificates and government stamp imprints for the purpose of authenticating the documents.
“The Criminal Investigation Department has been conducting a thorough surveillance operation of the factory,” said Col. Al-Habdan.
“We wanted to catch them red-handed before they can destroy evidence,” he added. “We caught the first suspect after conducting thorough investigation of his fabrication operation that produced many certificates for graduate degrees, for which large amounts of money were paid.”
Al-Habdan said that the factory was run by an expatriate from an Arab country. He holds a Ph.D. and teaches in a private Saudi university. He was aided by his daughter.
Photocopies of original certificates from an Arab country were also found in the illegal factory.
The police spokesman declined to reveal the nationality of the expatriate or the Arab country from which the photocopies of the fake certificates were taken. The two suspects are now held in custody, pending further investigation.
The spokesman explained that Qassim police department has a database containing information about the fabrication of university diplomas. He also said the database helped the police in the past to catch a number of persons involved in the business of manufacturing fake certificates.