Mubarak and others ordered to pay for telecom outage

An Egyptian court has fined ousted president Hosni Mubarak and two of his former ministers US$90 million for shutting down telecommunication services during the country’s popular uprising earlier this year.
The court ruled May 28 that Mubarak, former prime minister Ahmed Nazif and former interior minister Habib el-Adly were guilty of “damaging” Egypt’s economy after ordering the shutdown of the country’s Internet and telephone services in January as thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets.
Mubarak must pay about US$33 million, while Nazif faces a fine of nearly US$7 million. Adly has the heaviest fine of more than US$50 million.
Mobile operator Vodafone said in January that it and other telecom companies working in Egypt had no option but to comply with a government order to suspend services during the peak of the anti-government demonstrations.
Activists relied on popular social media websites, such as Facebook, to organise most of their rallies.  Internet experts have said that while Mubarak’s government was not the first to limit telecommunications, it was the first time that a government had done so in such a widespread manner.