Hosni Mubarak Fined By Egyptian Judge For Cutting Off Phone And Internet Service

CAIRO -- An Egyptian judge fined ousted President Hosni Mubarak and two other former officials $90 million Saturday for their role in cutting off mobile phone and Internet service during the uprising that ended Mubarak's rule earlier this year.

The fine is the latest legal step against Mubarak – who ruled Egypt largely unquestioned for three decades – since mass demonstrations forced him from office on Feb. 11. Foreign governments have frozen his family's assets, and he awaits trial on charges of corruption and conspiring to kill protesters. Those charges could carry the death penalty.

Saturday's fine is for the Egyptian government's effort to quash the protests by disrupting mobile phone and Internet service after the uprising's start in late January.

Judge Hamdi Okasha ordered the fine as compensation for financial losses the nation incurred during the telecommunication disruptions.

Mubarak is now under house arrest in a hospital in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. His share of the fine will be $33 million. Former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly, who orchestrated the crackdown on protesters, will pay $50 million. Ex-Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif will pay $7 million.

Comments

[joel123]

02:15 PM on 05/31/2011

When will George Bush and Dick Cheney get tried for their involvement in Haliburton and Blackwater???

[wyldthings]

12:42 PM on 05/30/2011

Now we know why Gaddafi won't just leave. If Mubarak stepped down but Egypt still is going to prosecute him for murder to this, then what leverage do we have to tell Gaddafi to leave?

[dim]

05:48 PM on 05/30/2011

Mubarak chose to stay in Egypt. He could have picked exile.

[wyldthings]

07:42 PM on 05/30/2011

I guess you miss my point. If you ask someone to step down from power and then you prosecute them for crimes. Than think why should Gaddafi leave power when we are going to exact our revenge. That is my point!

[Talab]

11:00 AM on 05/30/2011

The mental image of Hosni sitting in his bathrobe with his thermos writing 83 million checks for 5 dollars and 43 cents .........PRICELESS

[MIKEinNYC]

09:09 AM on 05/30/2011

These guys were civil servants. Is this a token gesture or do they actually have this kind of money to pay out?

[citizen1787]

10:17 AM on 05/30/2011

I imagine they have the money. In a word, corruption.

[SolarArray]

02:15 AM on 05/30/2011

The latest legal moves against George Bush.......

[Galilee]

02:15 PM on 05/29/2011

I don't think he's in jail. There is no video of him in jail or in court, or of his sons. These stories are meant to appease the public in Egypt. He's probably at his palace in Sharem or in Saudi.
The generals in power today in Egypt are his friends.

[Bonez1]

05:30 PM on 05/29/2011

Mubarak is now under house arrest in a hospital in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

[Galilee]

06:29 PM on 05/29/2011

And yet no recent photos of him or his sons.

[thebosssssny]

11:14 PM on 05/29/2011

His buddies the generals who were worse then him, stabed him in the back and putting blame on him. He was actually good and knew how to controll his people.

[applesNpears]

01:49 PM on 05/29/2011

I can't wait for the day when failed former US president George Bush and his despicable GOP ilk get their comeuppance. What they did to our nation while they had power was penal and they should not get away with it.

[robert horwitz]

05:22 AM on 05/29/2011

Oh please leave Grandpa alone. Mubarak is old enough to have given his final approval to the Board of Planning Commissions in Egypt on Egypt's first Pyramid. He has been a friend to the US for decades. OK so he was a scamp and did steal Billions from his own people. It's not completely his fault. He learned this trick from the best, us. So lets take most of the money back and give it to the next generation of Political Crooks and their Cronies who will be running Egypt so we can be sure that they will get off to a good start and leave him with enough dough so he can live out what's left of his life in relative comfort and safety. Insist that he stop smoking in bed and call it a day.

[ljkcan]

01:35 PM on 05/29/2011

Do you know in Egypt you could be picked up and sent off to prison at anytime?. Nobody telling your family nobody telling you why you were picked up.

His worse crime is he wanted to fire on his own people in Tahir square, the men in tanks were told to fire on them and they refused. So unless you lived there or no someone who lived there under his rule don't give me the "be kind to the nice guy line", he is as dangerous as they come.

[robert horwitz]

05:23 PM on 05/29/2011

Maybe he signed the Egyptian Patriot Act .

[maxben]

06:53 AM on 05/30/2011

Really?
I hadn't hear that.
Do you have a link?

[PharmaCan]

02:09 AM on 05/29/2011

And yet, here in America, those people that crashed our financial got bonuses instead of fines. Isn't it great to live in such a civilized nation?

[Krule]

02:24 AM on 05/29/2011

Argh!!!!! Stop posting such sensible words. You'll confuse them!

[mrtumnas]

01:41 AM on 05/29/2011

The man isn't a threat any longer. He's stepped down. Do the honorable thing and leave the old man alone.

[HawaiianLady]

03:09 AM on 05/29/2011

And what about the example that would set for future dictators who brutally quell any opposition to their regimes?

[cadacabezaunmundo]

05:16 PM on 05/29/2011

The example would be that stepping down is a good option.

[ljkcan]

09:39 PM on 05/29/2011

term limits.

[ljkcan]

01:36 PM on 05/29/2011

Give the money back to the Egyptian people.

[marknez21]

12:27 AM on 05/29/2011

How about Saudi Arabia, Kuvaite, and Bahrain DICTATORS? WE SUPPORT ALL THREE.

[edgeninja]

01:46 AM on 05/29/2011

How bout BUSH? lol

[unknownsoldier53]

10:37 PM on 05/29/2011

Bush was elected. Congress approved the Iraq invasion, and Afghanistan. Agree or not, We put him in office. Same can't be said for Saudia Arabia, Kuwaite, and Bahrain, can it?

[Susan Shaffer]

06:04 PM on 05/29/2011

that is because usa is supporting sunnis not shia.
shia main country is iran and unless and until they stop provoking the usa is going to stick with the sunni

[dim]

05:52 PM on 05/30/2011

Perhaps. But then why did the US hand Iraq over to Shiites?

[Roxee]

11:26 PM on 05/28/2011

Way to go Egyptians!

[NocanbanIsBack]

09:10 PM on 05/28/2011

this was the guy who made egypt stable for 30 years. now you'll have the islamists take over. good luck!

[Dan Crabtree]

01:23 AM on 05/29/2011

try 45 years of stability ..and a treaty with the israel..jobs for most who wanted jobs.... tourism aboundsl..all gone now.. one fourth of the nation is now with-out water and electricity..Time for that new democracy to step up...

[Susan Shaffer]

06:06 PM on 05/29/2011

spoke with one egyptian recently and he said egyptians couldn't get a job unless there was a bribe and that the mubarrak's had a % of all businesses (and i don't mean income tax)

[edgeninja]

01:48 AM on 05/29/2011

I think you might be confusing "stability" with "tyranny".

[CubnKira]

08:15 PM on 05/28/2011

Mubarek had a lot of blemishes. However, the post-Mubarek era will make Egyptians long for his tenure. Muslim fundamentalism is growing and getting out of control. Just a reminder, the Iranian revolution was sparked by students, how has that worked out? And Obama is dumb enough to still give them billions in his blind hope that somehow democracy will catch on in a muslim country where the chances are slim to none.

[sanddc]

12:37 AM on 05/29/2011

This man and the country of Eygpt were given billions long before President Obama took office. You don't live there why in the heck are you so worry about who lives and run this bucking country.

[Susan Shaffer]

06:07 PM on 05/29/2011

because it might become a haven of anti american feeling

[AbuHamza]

08:10 PM on 05/28/2011

That should be the least of his worries. Killing protesters is still yet to come. And with that, he's screwed either way because it's one of two things: either he sanctioned the killing of civilians, or he did NOT know that civilians were being shot dead in cold blood by his State Security before the world media, which, in my view, is just as incriminating.