"Exam papers leaked." Sookmyung Girls' High School twins found guilty...It's been 5 years.

[Anchor]
The twin sisters, who took the test after seeing the answer sheet leaked by the head of the school's department's father, were sentenced to one year in prison and three years of probation.

The Supreme Court's sentence came out more than five years after it was handed over to trial.

Reporter Cha Jung-yoon reports.

[Reporter]
The suspended prison sentence has been confirmed for the twin sisters of Sookmyung Girls' High School, who took the test after seeing the answer sheet secretly stolen by their father, the head of the school.

The Supreme Court dismissed both the prosecutor's and the defendant's appeals, confirming the original ruling that sentenced the sisters to one year in prison and three years of probation.

The twin sisters cheated five times from the final exam in the first semester of 2017, when they were in their first year of high school, and the final conclusion came out more than five years after they were handed over to trial.

The twins have consistently denied the allegations since the first trial, but they have not been accepted by the court.

However, the court accepted the sister's argument about the illegality of the mobile phone seizure procedure, which was a major issue.

When conducting a search and seizure against a minor, a warrant must be presented directly.
They said they could not replace it with a warrant for
parents, and considered the investigative agency's seizure and search procedures for sister mobile phones illegal.

At the same time, the court ruled that there was no problem with the original ruling, saying that the rest of the legally adopted evidence alone was sufficient to convict.

The sisters were expelled from school in October 2018, shortly after police announced the results of the investigation.

The father, who was handed over to trial before his two daughters, was sentenced to three years in prison by the Supreme Court in March 2020, and is currently released from prison after serving time.

I'm YTN's Cha Jung Yoon.

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video: Lee Ju-yeon
Graphic: Lee Na Eun