A Kuwaiti court has sentenced three defendants including an expatriate to five years in prison each on charges of involvement in a leak of crucial high school examinations, the latest such case in the country.
The Criminal Court handed down the sentencing 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, which was not clear when it surfaced.
The rulings can be appealed.
In December, a Kuwaiti court handed down varying jail terms to four people in a similar case. At the time, the Criminal Court sentenced two Kuwaitis – a man and a woman – to 10 and seven years in prison respectively in the case.
Another Kuwaiti man and an expatriate were each given one year in jail in the same case.
The defendants were charged with leaking classified information and forgery through involvement in online cheat groups targeting secondary school students.
Last November, a Kuwaiti court sentenced a citizen and an expatriate to 10 years in prison each after convicting them of involvement in online leaking of high school exams in another case. The criminal court also ordered both defendants to pay a combined fine of KD482,000 in that case.
The duo were also accused of money laundering, and their bank accounts frozen after they had amassed money from the exam leak groups and selling cheat earphones.
Last year, Kuwait’s prosecutors had referred to the court three such cases involving dozens of defendants on charges of exam leaks, forgery and money laundering.
