Cairo - Hosni
Mubarak is slipping in and out of consciousness a week after the ousted
Egyptian leader was sent to prison to begin serving a life sentence, a security
official says.
With rumours of
the former president's death spreading rapidly, authorities granted his wife,
former first lady Suzanne Mubarak, and the couple's two daughters-in-law
special permission to visit him in Cairo's Torah prison early on Sunday.
"The former
president's health is in decline, but now it's stable in its deteriorated
state," the official said. Since his wife's visit, Mubarak has suffered
from an irregular heartbeat and required assistance in breathing.
The official told
The Associated Press that the former president now lives only on liquids and
yogurt. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to
speak to the media.
Mubarak's health
is reported to have collapsed since his 2 June conviction for failing to stop
the killing of protesters during the uprising that overthrew him in 2011. His
life sentence saw him transferred immediately to a prison hospital, instead of
the military hospital and other facilities where he had been held since his
April 2011 arrest.
Authorities have
turned down several requests by Mubarak's family to transfer the ousted
president back to a military facility, the official said.
On Saturday
Mubarak's wife was denied access to the Intensive Care Unit where he was
placed, as authorities limit family visitations to one a month.
According to
security officials quoted by al-Masry al-Youm daily, Mrs Mubarak lashed out at
wardens for not giving her husband permission to seek treatment outside the
prison. "You will be responsible for his death," she allegedly said.
Last public
appearance
Mubarak's two sons
Alaa and Gamal are also being held. They were acquitted on 2 June of corruption
charges, but still face separate charges of insider trading.
On Saturday,
Egypt's state run news agency MENA quoted officials as saying that Mubarak is
at risk of a stroke, quoting a medical team's report.
Other media
reports said that his lawyer Farid al-Deeb informed him that he will soon be
transferred back to a military facility in the Cairo suburb of Maadi.
In his last public
appearance on 2 June, the bedridden Mubarak sat stoned-faced in the courtroom
cage. However, officials said that he broke into tears when he learnt that he
will be transferred to Torah prison. It took officials hours to convince
Mubarak to leave the helicopter that ferried him from the courthouse to the
prison.
Media reports
quoted Mubarak at the time as saying the military council who took over after
his ouster had deceived him. "Egypt has sold me. They want me to die here,"
he reportedly said.
The verdict
sparked a new wave of protests by tens of thousands of Egyptians who allege the
verdict was determined by political pressure from the country's military
rulers, doing a favour for their former president.
They say the
verdict as issued can be easily overturned in an appeal, and that the
acquittals of six top security officials mean that killers of the protesters
will remain unknown. Many hoped Mubarak or his top officials would be convicted
of murder and receive the death penalty.
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