Students who cheated on the national college entrance exam may breath a little easier today after a Beijing lawyer said their involvement in the widespread scheme is not a crime.

"Chinese law says if the cheating created serious consequences or resulted in the leak of national secrets, then the cheater would have to bear criminal liability. In this case, educating the students not to do that again would be more reasonable," said Qiu Baochang.

At least 33 students in Songyuan, Jilin Province, were caught cheating on the exam by using electronic earphones and receivers.

Police have said those who used the hi-tech cheating devices would lose their scores and face criminal liability.

But Qiu said criminal liability should not be meted out to the students if they only used instead of sold the devices.

Local police could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Meanwhile, police have arrested the suspect who was believed to have sold hi-tech devices to Liu Yanhua, a teacher from No 1 High School of Fuyu county in Songyuan city, to assist students cheating in the exam.

The suspect, detained by Baicheng's municipal public security bureau in Jilin province before the nationwide examination began on June 7, admitted to police he had sold 27 devices to Liu, including receivers, earphones, chargers and batteries.

Then the teacher, together with her colleague He Shujie, sold the devices to the students' parents before the national test.

Liu allegedly made a profit of more than 400,000 yuan, according to a spokesman with the Songyuan Public Security Bureau.

Liu earlier confessed she bought the cheating devices through a website in May and promised parents she would send test answers to the students through the devices.

According to Chinese criminal law, the two teachers and the seller of the devices face up to three years in jail if convicted, police said.

Earlier, police detained 34 suspects in the city for allegedly selling cheating devices to students for the college entrance exam. They confiscated 683 devices.

(China Daily June 17, 2009)