CAIRO: Imprisoned former Egypt President Hosni Mubarak's health is deteriorating, the state-owned MENA news agency reported Thursday. It quoted sources that said Mubarak, who currently resides in the prison hospital in Cairo, was put on a life sustaining device five times within a few hours. Mubarak, 84, is reportedly suffering from “severe depression” and has been taken to the intensive care unit in Torah prison's hospital. Various local reports mentioned that a helicopter was hovering over the prison in anticipation of moving Mubarak to a different hospital. Mubarak and his minister of interior were handed life in prison (25 years in the Egyptian penal code) on June 2 in the case of killing protesters during the 18 days of the uprising that ousted him and his regime. His wife Suzanne was reported to have applied for his transfer to a more equipped hospital after she visited him three days ago. Egypt's attorney general and the minister of interior are discussing transferring him out of prison. Mubarak was assigned a team of highly qualified doctors to care for him after his verdict was issued and he was taken to serve his sentence in the prison. Sources inside the prison said the former dictator suffered “a nervous breakdown” following his transfer to prison. He also suffered shortage of breath and high blood pressure. His son Gamal was transferred from the prison annex to be next to his father after medics advised he should have a companion with him. Mubarak requested his two sons be by his side, but the initial request was rejected. Gamal and Alaa Mubarak are still being held, as their case of financial corruption is being heard in court.
