The three main suspects in the Ibn Ghaldoun school exam theft case have been given one month in jail and 170 hours community service for stealing and distributing 27 exam papers.

None of the three will have to go to jail because they all spent some 30 days in custody during the investigation.

Six others were given sentences ranging from one week in jail to 150 hours community service. Two minors still have to be sentenced. The public prosecution department had called for three month jail terms for the main suspects.

School finals

Nine men and two women, most of them teenagers, were tried in connection with the theft of the papers from the Ibn Galdhoun school in Rotterdam. Eight of them were due to take their final school exams.

The court was told that some of the group had sneaked into the school through an unlocked skylight and taken the papers. They were then copied and sold via internet to other pupils for up to €250.

The theft led to all pupils nationwide having to retake the pre-university French paper. All Ibn Ghaldoun pupils were forced to retake most of their exams and hundreds of children were questioned during the police investigation.

Announcing the verdicts, the judge said he did not think the teenagers had aimed to cause such disruption and that ‘events ran away with them’.

Nevertheless, the suspects are all ‘clever enough to have been able to realise things could get out of hand and have major consequences,’ the judge said.