CAIRO - A military official denied Saturady Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi had ordered a cut of Internet services during the 18-day protests which toppled Hosni Mubarak. "The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and its members should stay away from such polemics," the military official said on condition of anonymity. He added that the Armed Forces had sided with the people since the first minute of the revolution. A lawyer for Mubarak, convicted for having cut Internet services during the revolution, has pinned part of the blame on Tantawi, saying the current ruler of Egypt was member of a panel which endorsed the Internet cut. Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Mubarak's lawyer, told reporters that Mubarak had lodged an appeal on Thursday against the ruling. "The decision to cut the Internet was taken by a commission including Tantawi," said Abdel Wahab, who argued that Mubarak told him he had not been consulted. A Cairo court on May 28 fined Mubarak and two former ministers a total of $90 million dollars for "damaging the economy" with a telephone and Internet shutdown during Egypt's uprising. A spokesman for the armed forces said the former president "considers that the armed forces abandoned him at a time when he was their supreme commander and now wants to settle scores". Mubarak went on trial on Wednesday for alleged corruption and over the killing of hundreds of demonstrators during the January-February revolt.
