Georgian woman facing 3 years in jail for shutting off internet service
April 11th, 2011 - 8:21 am ICT by ANITbilisi (Georgia), Apr. 11 (ANI): An elderly Georgian woman is facing charges that could lead to three years in prison for allegedly shutting off the internet service in her country and neighbouring Armenia while scavenging for copper cable.
Though the woman tearfully insists she was innocent and had never heard of the web, Georgian authorities say 75-year-old Aiyastan Shakaryan severed a fibre optic cable on March 28, shutting off the information highway in much of Georgia and all of Armenia for several hours. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the cable ran parallel to a railroad track in eastern Georgia where she was allegedly scavenging.
Shakarian says she was only collecting firewood.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Zurab Gvenetadze she has been charged with property destruction, which carries a sentence of up to three years, but it’s probable she would get a lighter sentence because of her age.
Shakarian lives in the poverty-stricken Georgian village of Armazi, around 15 kilometres from the capital Tbilisi. (ANI)
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