Sacked Education Officer Abdullah Ahad has filed a Supreme Court civil writ against the Bermuda Sun newspaper.

Mr. Ahad?s contract with the Ministry of Education was cancelled by the Public Services Commission following reports in the Bermuda Sun that he did not appear to have the minimum qualifications for his $80,000-a-year job.

Editor-in-Chief Tony McWilliam said yesterday the newspaper could not comment as it had not yet received the writ.

The Ministry launched an initial probe in May 2004 before handing the matter to the Public Services Commission.

But Mr. Ahad denies any wrongdoing and last August said his efforts to clear his name could include legal action.

?I am definitely confident I will be cleared in the end,? he said. ?Anybody with eyes should be able to see the evidence that I have presented and to recognise them as being a confirmation of everything that I have said.?

The tabloid also reported that both Cambridge College in Massachusetts ? where Mr. Ahad claims to have studied and taught computer studies ? and Harvard University had said that there was no record of him having studied at those institutions.

The Bermuda Sun also reported that Mr. Ahad told the newspaper that he had a College degree, a Master?s degree and a PhD.

And the newspaper later revealed that All American University which Mr. Ahad said granted him the PhD, was a defunct ?paper mill? which sold degrees through the Internet for as little as $129 for an associate degree and $159 for a doctoral degree.

Mr. Ahad insists that he had studied at Harvard and had a College degree as well as a Masters and a Phd.

?Everything that I have said was true and everything can be substantiated ? and I have the documents to prove it,? he said last year.

Efforts to contact Mr. Ahad were unsuccessful yesterday.