The health condition of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is ‘severely deteriorating,’ prison sources told Al Arabiya, three days after he was sentenced to life for complicity in the murder of hundreds of protesters last year.

Sources inside Cairo’s Tora prison told Al Arabiya that Mubarak collapsed following visits on Monday by his wife Suzanne, and his sons Alaa and Gamal. His wife reportedly sobbed after she saw him in a prison suit.

The sons are detained pending trial in a case involving alleged share-price manipulation.

Alaa was reportedly moved to a cell near his father, whose personal doctors were not allowed to oversee his health condition.

Egypt’s state news agency said “the severe deterioration in the former president’s condition” prompted prison staff to bring in an Interior Ministry medical team. He was given sedatives and placed under observation, it added.

It said the family visit, the first since his sentencing, caused him to suffer from depression, prompting him to stop eating.

It was not possible to independently check the report.

Mubarak’s health has been the subject of widespread speculation for years. During his trial, he was wheeled into court on a hospital stretcher for each hearing, though his ailment was undefined.






Al Arabiya