This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.
An Egyptian court has fined ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and other officials 540 million Egyptian pounds ($90m) for disconnecting the Internet and mobile phone services during the revolution which toppled him, it was announced today.
According to Reuters, the administrative court fined Mubarak 200 million pounds, former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif 40 million pounds, and former interior minister Habib al-Adly 300 million pounds for their damage to the national economy.
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Image by Agência Brasil (Creative Commons Atribuição 2.5 Brasil).
Mubarak's regime first shut down access to Twitter when protests first started on January 25, then Facebook on January 26, before turning off the Internet on January 28.
Here are some citizen media reactions on the story.
On Twitter, UAE columnist Sultan Al Qassemi reports:
Al Jazeera: Egypt: Mubarak fined $90 million for disconnecting the Internet & mobile phone services during the revolution. #Jan25
The fine left some Egyptian tweeps scratching their heads, making some reach out to their calculators to see if the spoils will get filtered down to subscribers.
Mohammed Hamdy asks:
Mohammed Yousif, who tweets @JawazSafar, adds:
Sentencing on Mubarak seems based on financial impact. he also should be trialled for easing-murdering & forbidding SOS services #Egypt
And Egyptian lawyer and the executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information Gamal Eid adds:
This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.
9 comments
Does this announce a new world “order” : Revolution => public-private “partnerships” => business colonialism?