Mubarak blames Egypt new chief for Internet cut

Ousted president Hosni Mubarak, convicted for having cut Internet services during the revolt which toppled him, has pinned part of the blame on his successor as Egypt's ruler, a defence lawyer said on Friday. 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 lawyer for the ex-president, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, 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 Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Egypt's military ruler and then defence minister, according to Mubarak, who argued he had not been consulted. 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.