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British "Hacker" In Emirates Creates Website To Garner Support DUBAI (AFP) - The young Briton accused of hacking into and damaging the Internet service of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has created a website to garner moral and financial support for his case, his lawyer said Saturday. "My client, Lee Ashurst, has published a website, www.supportlee.4.mg.com, designed to get him support, morally and financially, and technical expertise," Habib al-Mulla told AFP. Mulla added that he would be allowed to nominate experts to examine the data and records of Etisalat, the state-run telecoms company that has accused the 21-year-old Ashurst of "misuse" of its equipment and services. The 1991 law under which Ashurst has been charged - and which carries a maximum six months in jail or a fine of up to 10,000 dirhams ($2,725 dollars) - was enacted before the Internet was available in the UAE and was designed mainly to curb harassment on the telephone. Ashurst, who was fired from his job as a computer network engineer with a construction company after the allegations came to light, has hit back by filing a defamation suit with police against Etisalat. Ashurst's police file has been transferred to the Dubai public prosecutor's office, which will question the suspect before deciding whether the case should go to court. Meanwhile, a technical committee has been hurriedly set up to draft legislation on information technology crime, and independent experts are being called in to determine the cause of major Internet disruptions over the past three weeks. The constant disruptions have proved an embarrassment at a time when Dubai is building what it has billed as the world's first "Internet City," a duty-free zone due for launch in October
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