Image via WikipediaThe Egyptian administrative court has made the decision of fining the expelled former President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, along with his two closest former officials. A total sum of 540 million Egyptian pounds ($91 million) was fined to three officials of the former government on Saturday, for misusing their powers and ordering to halt the mobile and Internet services in the time of protests which took place in January. This is the first court ruling against Mubarak after his resignation, on 11th February, due to one of the world’s largest civil protest. Mubarak will be facing even more brutal charges and might be even be given a death penalty as he defends against charges like ordering the killing of protesters.
According to the sources in the Egyptian judicial system, the administrative court has fined a total of 200 million Egyptian pounds to Mubarak personally, and the fine imposed to his former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli is 300 million pounds, while the rest 40 million pounds were fined to former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. Officially the fine is imposed to Mubarak, Nazif and Adli, because they were found guilty of "causing damage to the national economy,” as these fines are supposed to return that money to the country’s treasury.
The protests which led to the resignation of Mubarak were mostly organized on the internet, largely by social networking websites like Facebook. More than 800 protesters lost their lives while around 6,000 were injured. The telecom operator, Vodafone, agreed in January that along with other mobile operators, it was forced to obey the orders received from Egyptian authorities to halt the internet services, especially in the areas where anti-government activates were on peak. Later in February, Vodafone also disclosed that the authorities also used its network for sending pro-government text messages to users.
According to the local news network, MENA, the current Communications and Information Technology Minister, Maged Othman, has announced that ministry will be compensating almost around 100 million pounds to the mobile operators for their alleged losses which they had to suffer due to the service disruption.
Adli has already been sentenced for 12 years in jail on unrelated charges, while Mubarak, currently detained in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, has been ordered to stand trial on Tuesday.
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