CAIRO: A court adjourned the appeal by the former president and officials in the telecommunications cutoff case until November 21. The Supreme Administrative Court adjourned the appeal by former president Hosni Mubarak and his ministers, who were sentenced to pay LE 540 million in financial compensation for cutting telecommunication services during the January 25 uprising. The judge said Monday the case will be delayed until all the necessary documents are made available to the court. According to the initial ruling, Mubarak is to pay LE 200 million, former interior minister Habib El-Adly LE 300 million and former prime minister Ahmed Nazif LE 40 million. The ruling said the state treasury may review these fines and request an increase before the end of fiscal year 2011/12. The court said the case was adjourned because a report summarizing decisions made by the ministries of defense and interior as well as the intelligence authority during the uprising is not yet available. During the court session, state news agency MENA reported, Prosecutor General Abdul Meguid Mahmoud, representing the state, submitted a copy of the decision to send Mubarak and El-Adly to a criminal court for their involvement in the killing of protesters, explaining that the prosecutor's investigation included the issue of cutting off telecommunications. According to MENA, a report by the State Judicial Authority advised the court to cancel the initial ruling, saying it is not what the plaintiffs asked for. The lawyer who filed the lawsuit called for the compensation to be used to establish a civil educational and research institution, while the court ordered Mubarak and the former ministers pay a fine that will go into the state budget. Despite the plaintiff's argument that Egypt's three mobile operators — Vodafone, Mobinil and Etisalat — violated their contractual obligations by severing services when Egyptians needed them most, the court did not fine any of the companies.
