An old aged pensioner, who was digging for scrap metal, was arrested today and is facing three years in prison after she cut through a fibre-optic cable which subsequently brought down the internet in Armenia and in turn neighboring Georgia.
The unnamed OAP managed to come across a critical fibre-optic cable, which is responsible for serving internet connectivity to “90 percent of private and corporate internet users in Armenia” and some in her own country as well.
Quite unfairly the police arrested the 75-year-old pensioner because she intended to steal the cable, and is now facing a prison sentence of three years.
The harmless OAP cut the cable which runs through Georgia to Armenia, forcing internet users in both countries offline for 12 hours, and will have cost businesses a lot of money during the downtime.
“She found the cable while collecting scrap metal and cut it with a view to stealing it,” Georgian interior ministry spokesman Zura Gvenetadze said.
The pensioner could face up to three years in prison if convicted - which we think is extremely harsh. She obviously didn’t think the cable was anything important and certainly didn’t think it would bring down the internet of two countries.
“Taking into account her advancing years, she has been released pending the end of the investigation and subsequent trial,” Mr Gvenetadze said.
This isn’t the first time that this has happened apparently in 2009 another scavenger damaged a fibre-optic cable while hunting for scrap metal in the impoverished ex-Soviet state.
“I cannot understand how this lady managed to find and damage the cable,” GRT head of marketing Giorgi Ionatamishvili said.
“It has robust protection and such incidents are extremely rare.” well it obviously wasn’t that hard to find as this is the second time scavenger has brought down the internet to an entire country.
GRT’s slogan is “your reliable partner in the Caucasus region” this is something they might want to reconsider in the future.