3 Kuwaitis jailed in new case of exam leaks

Cairo: A Kuwaiti court has sentenced three citizens to three years in prison with hard labour on charges of involvement in leaking the crucial high school exams in the latest such case in the country.

Earlier, the Kuwaiti public prosecution referred to a court trial of a former head of the printing press at the Ministry of Education, an employee, and a teacher, on charges of disclosing confidential information by leaking exams on social media. It is not clear yet when the case surfaced.

Last month, another Kuwaiti court passed varying jail sentences against seven people in a similar case.

The Criminal Court sentenced three siblings with no official papers, two Kuwaitis and an Egyptian national to 10 years in prison with hard labour each in the case linked to the leak of secondary school exams via WhatsApp group last year.

The six were also ordered to pay a combined fine of KD42,000 ($136,000).

The court also handed down a one-year jail sentence to a teacher on charges of leaking the exams to the other defendants, who collected KD42,000 from the students, charging each student KD50 to get the correct answers before sitting for the exam.

In June, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education cancelled the Islamic education exam and rescheduled it after its questions and answers circulated on social media.

Ten suspects were subsequently arrested in connection to the leak.

In recent years, exam leaks were reported in Kuwait and the culprits were later penalised in different cases.

Earlier last year, a Kuwaiti court sentenced three defendants including an expatriate to five years in prison each on charges of involvement in a leak of high school exams.

The verdict was handed down to two Kuwaiti citizens convicted of involvement in the exam leak via WhatsApp groups in return for money.

The court issued the same sentence against an Egyptian expatriate, who was tried in absentia in connection to the same case.

In October, Kuwait’s highest court handed down varying jail terms to four people on charges of involvement in leaks of secondary school exams in a different case.