Three people who revealed test information were sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to three years for deliberately leaking state secrets by the Beijing No.1 Intermediate Court on Wednesday.

According to the court investigation, Shi Xiaolong, deputy chief with the educational administration of the Beijing-based Chinese People's University of Public Security, got the test papers of the 2003 Band-Four National English Test for College Students from the education committee on Sept. 19, 2003 and gave the papers to his friend Cao Yu, a teacher at a training school in Langfang, a small county neighboring Beijing.

Cao and Liu Chen, chief of the training school, disclosed the content at their training programs and classes before the exam was held on Sept. 20. Cao told his students "not to be surprised if you see similar or the same questions on the test," according to the court investigation.

At least 700 students who participated in the programs knew about the test questions.

After the exam, someone informed the unusual situation to the daily Beijing Times, which published stories on the case soon after.

The three persons were arrested last October. In Wednesday's verdict, Shi and Cao were give a three-year jail term and Liu was to be imprisoned for two years.

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2004)