Mubarak and Others Fined $91 Million for Cutting Off Internet Access in Egypt

The turmoil in Egypt is far from over, but already some justice, or at least retribution is being done. Three people, including former president Hosni Mubarak, were fined about $91 million for cutting off the internet and disrupting mobile communications during the protests at the start of the year.

In fact, it's the first ruling against the former president ever since he resigned in early February.

The court found the three people accused, guilty of damaging the national economy with their actions and were ordered to pay huge fines for their abuses.

Mubarak has to pay 200 million Egyptian pounds, former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif only 40 million pounds and former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli 300 million pounds. The total of 540 million Egyptian pounds is the equivalent of about $91 million.

Mubarak and his government are accused of far greater crimes, including the deaths of at least 800 people during the protests. A trial for the deaths of the protesters has already begun and the former president is one of those being charged. Already, Adli has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for money laundering and other charges.

Protests in Egypt started in January and, as things escalated, internet access was cut off for much of the country. The protests had been organized and started online and the leaders used Facebook and other means to both spread the message and communicate plans.

Initially, Facebook and Twitter were blocked, but then internet traffic was blocked for the entire country. This was meant to dampen the efforts of the protesters, but in the end had little effect.

Mobile communications were also blocked or disrupted during that period. The government forced some operators to spread propaganda via SMS as well. The protests continued nevertheless and internet access was restored several days later after seeing that the protests were not dying down, quite the contrary.