A despatch clerk was charged in the Kuala Lumpur sessions court here today with two charges of misappropriating the question papers for the July 2001 Certificate of Legal Practice (CLP) examination and the 2001 Evidence supplementary examination.

Ramli Md Moktar, 30 claimed trial to the charges which alleged that he committed criminal breach of trust on the question papers entrusted to him as the Legal Profession Qualifying Board's office assistant cum despatch boy.

He was said to have committed the offences at the Board's head office at Menara Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur between June and Sept 26, 2001.

Both charges are under Section 408 of the Penal Code and if Ramli is found guilty, he faces a maximum ten-year jail term for each charge, plus whipping and fines.

Sessions judge Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab set bail at RM15,000 and fixed July 11 for mention to allow Mokhtar time to get a lawyer to represent him.

To date Mokhtar failed to raise bail and was seen escorted to the court's lockup late afternoon.

Earlier, DPP Noreen Badarudin suggested that the court set bail at RM20,000 but Mokhtar informed the court that he has since been suspended by the Board and it would be impossible to raise such a huge amount of money.

"Please lower the bail. I am facing financial problems as I have to support my two children and my wife is currently pregnant with our third baby," he said.

Mokhtar is the second person to be charged in connection with the CLP 2001 examination controversy out of seven arrested last year.

Exam director charged

Last week on June 6, CLP examinations director Khalid Yusoff was charged in the same court with mark tampering and cheating in connection with the results of the July 2001 CLP exams.

Khalid claimed trial and the case is fixed for hearing between October 22 and 25. He was allowed to post bail at RM20,000 and had his international passport impounded by the court as part of the bail condition.

If found guilty, he faces a maximum seven-year jail term for the first charge and a manimum five-year jail term for the second charge, plus fine.

On Nov 26, the board found Khalid responsible for irregularities between the marks awarded by examiners on the answer scripts and the master result list which Khalid compiled and tabled for the board's approval. The board subsequently lodged a police report against him.

The CLP exam issue cropped up last year when students complained that the exam papers had been leaked out by "insiders".

In November last year, 921 CLP students were traumatised after the board announced that it had detected discrepancies in the candidates' marks in the main CLP exam in July and supplementary Evidence paper.

The board then wanted students to resit the whole exam but retracted its decision after an outcry, not only from the students but also the Bar Council and the legal fraternity. It then decided to make a reassessment.

After the reassessment, the board announced on Nov 27 last year that the number of passing candidates was reduced from 232 to119. Also reduced was the number of candidates who obtained conditional pass from 228 to 170.

Meanwhile, board secretary Abdul Wahab Said Ahmad lodged a report and the Federal CID police department formed a special team to probe the matter. The police team was headed by Assistant Commissioner Hadi Ho Abdullah.