The President of the Administrative Prosecution Authority Samir el-Badawi agreed to refer 243 suspects to the disciplinary court in connection with the leak of secondary school exam questions in the governorate of Menya. The Prosecution has been carrying out investigations into this case for eight months. According to the investigations, among those referred are: three education ministry undersecretaries; five people currently in prison on criminal charges; a large number of officials of the ministry, directorates, education administrations and exam committees and centers in the governorate; and officials of health units and the Health Insurance Authority. The Prosecution has also decided to shelve investigations against 12 accused (including two from an electric company in Upper Egypt) as they were judged unimportant. During the investigations, 403 witnesses and accused have been heard, while their documents have been written down on 1,732 investigation papers during 83 investigation sessions. The investigations have also sent several recommendations to the ministries of education, health and interior as well as the president of the Central Auditing Organization [CAO] so that these episodes no longer occur. The Administrative Prosecution had received three notifications by Education Minister Yousry el-Gamal over the leak of secondary school exams in Menya (on differential equation, trigonometry and English). The minister had informed the prosecution that he had annulled the exams of 17 students involved in this leak. He had also called for investigations with 15 education ministry employees. 14 had been sentenced to 3 to 15 years in jail, while five others were acquitted. 13 court sessions have been held to hear the witnesses, the charges from the Prosecution and the defense's pleadings. During the investigations, 403 officials who were among the members of order and control committees have been heard as well as some officials of the ministry and civil servants in the governorates of Assiut and Menya. Some committees had been formed in some hospitals [to allow sick students to take their exams in hospital] and had received special envelops there. The Education Ministry Legal Affairs Director had submitted a note to the Health Ministry demanding that disciplinary measures be taken against doctors at Maghagha Hospital in Menya and that they be deprived of incentives. It had then turned out that the Ministry of Education did not know about these committees. The Administrative Prosecution had decided to merge the two notifications into one along with the complaints sent to the Prosecution concerning the same case. The extended investigations have defined the disciplinary responsibility and inquired about how much the ministry had complied with the Administrative Prosecution's recommendations concerning collective cheating in furnished apartments in 2005. The reports of the committees formed by the Prosecution affirm that the members of the exam committees in Menya had been working with each other for many years, thus breaking the law. The health minister asked to specify the disciplinary responsibility of hospital doctors for allowing those students to take their secondary school exams. According to the sources, 12 students (born of judges and police officers) are likely to have taken the exam in these commissions. According to the investigations with the 15 officials referred to the Prosecution (on whom the minister called for imposing deterring disciplinary sanctions), these people agreed among them to give a paper for every subject in exchange of money enough time before the exam. It has also emerged that some employees obtained the exams of English and trigonometry for money, as well. The questions started to leak after the accused went to a copy shop outside the Thawrat School in Mazar to make photocopies of the exams. The investigations also unveiled that the papers were handed to students on exam day at 3 a.m., five hours before the exam. Some workers did not inspect the places of the committee, while the rear door of Thawrat School was left open by the school chief worker as instructed by the committee president. The latter, for his part, kept the keys of the main gate and did not spend the night at the committee throughout the exams. The investigations also included the complaint filed by a control member affirming that violations had been committed at the exam correction committee. Such member also attached some documents coming from the correction room which were not supposed to get out of the room itself. According to the investigations, the printing office staff members were not searched when they arrived and left the place, so no one made sure they were not carrying any devices or mobile phones that could be used to leak the questions. Additionally, the accused did not get anything affirming that all the questions were in line with the school year's curricula. Such acknowledgment was among the responsibilities of the technical committee charged with choosing the exam questions.
