Two people have been jailed in Algerian for leaking exam papers, the country’s ministry of education has said.
The ministry added that Algerian courts in several parts of the country have ordered prison time for defendants in cases related to leaking exam papers.
The sentences are in line with a penal code amendment adopted in April that criminalised cheating during the brevet and baccalaureate examinations, usually taken at the end of secondary and high school, respectively.
The news comes days after Algeria blocked social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.
In the southern province of Djelfa, two people were sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of 500,000 dinars after they leaked the Arabic language exam papers online.
Other jail sentences ranging from 10 to 18 months have been ordered against people accused of posting national exam papers on social media in the provinces of Tebessa east and Laghouat south of the country.
Last Wednesday, the justice ministry announced that a teenager in the northeastern city of Guelma had been sentenced to one year in jail for having shared the results of an Arabic-language test online.
The leaking of exam papers has been a perplexing problem for the government in recent years.
The Baccalaureate exams started this week throughout the country after a long delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Extra online security measures have been taken according to the ministry of education to prevent cheating and leaking of exam papers.