Fifty Iraqis have been handed prison sentences ranging from five years to life for illegally using international telephone lines belonging to other citizens, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
The courts also ordered the fifty, who were not identified, to pay fines totaling more than $500,000, Asma Mohammad of Iraq's telecommunications company said, quoted by the weekly Al-Rafidain newspaper.
Iraq's telephone network, a large part of which was installed by the French group Alcatel in the 1980s, was hit hard during the 1991 Gulf War, and it has never recovered to previous levels. — (AFP, Baghdad)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
