Tutors at South Korean test preparation schools denied criminal wrongdoing during a court hearing on Monday involving leaked information that led to the cancellation of the US SAT college entrance exam in South Korea in 2013.

Nine of 22 defendants, including tutors and owners of private "test-prep" schools, appeared in a Seoul court for their first hearing, charged with illegally obtaining SAT college entrance exam test papers and offering them to pupils.

Their lawyers have said their clients are not guilty of copyright infringement.