(AFP File Photo)
A 19 year-old student from Shubra Al-Kheima, accused of sharing answers to this year’s secondary school matriculation exams on Facebook, has been arrested, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Interior.
The student was arrested with his cousin, a 22 year-old also from Shubra. The pair were found in possession of the computers with which they allegedly transmitted the questions and answers to the exams that are taken to receive the Certificate of General Secondary Education.
The computers with which the two men were arrested “show evidence [that] confirms the incident” according to the ministry’s statement. The men were allegedly tracked after “all relevant legal procedures” were taken to allow for “ technical examination procedures, which resulted in the identification of the perpetrators”.
The arrest comes days after a leaked document suggested that the Ministry of Interior is looking for programmes that allow officials to spy on social media networks throughout the country.
Various rights groups, including Amnesty International, were quick to condemn the ministry’s moves, which rights groups say would allow it to use mass surveillance to crack down on opposition.
The leaked Ministry of Interior document suggests the ministry is searching for tenders to create surveillance software to monitor at least 26 topics, ranging from defamation of religion, calling for illegal strikes and demonstrations to terrorism and violence.
