Former president Hosni Mubarak's health continues to be the focus of fevered speculation, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Contradictory reports about the health and trial of ousted President Hosni Mubarak continue to be issued, leading some commentators to suggest that what might at first glance appear to be official ineptitude is in fact a concerted campaign to prevent the former president from standing trial publicly. On 20 June Mubarak's lawyer Farid El-Deeb announced that his client's health was deteriorating quickly. "Mubarak," said El-Deeb, "has stomach cancer and it's getting worse." El-Deeb's statement came a week after an official report prepared by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice's chief coroner found "the health of the former president is generally stable apart from acute depression". Mubarak's trial, along with that of his sons Gamal and Alaa and business associate Hussein Salem, is due to open on 3 August. The former president has been charged with ordering security forces to open fire on pro-democracy protesters in Tahrir Square as well as illegal profiteering, accepting large commissions from Salem in return for helping him monopolise the export of Egyptian natural gas to Israel. In June 2010 Mubarak underwent surgery in Germany. At the time, says El-Deeb, Dr Markus Wolfgang Buchler removed parts of Mubarak's pancreas, gall bladder and a growth on his small intestine. El-Deeb told CNN news that Buchler had recommended that Mubarak undergo comprehensive follow-up examinations every four months but "any follow-up was completely ignored". He added that he had filed a request with Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, chairman of the Higher Council of the Armed Forces (HCAF), asking him to extend an official invitation to Buchler to come to Sharm El-Sheikh to examine Mubarak. "Mubarak's family had asked Buchler to come to Egypt to conduct the necessary examinations but the famous German surgeon insisted he needed an official invitation from the HCAF," says El-Deeb. The prosecutor-general, however, has approved Buchler's visit. Meanwhile, the Doctors' Syndicate has announced its intention to extend an official invitation to the German surgeon whose final report shall be certified by the prosecutor-general. Six doctors affiliated to the military were dispatched to see Mubarak at Sharm El-Sheikh hospital and delivered a report on 24 May. A week later, on 1 June, Egyptian prosecutors released a statement saying Mubarak's heartbeat was irregular. This, combined with low blood pressure, could, they said, lead to "drops in blood circulation in the brain... resulting in unconsciousness". The report also found the former president faced an increased risk of heart attack and was suffering from depression, fatigue and muscle weakness. Earlier, in April, the former chief coroner Ahmed El-Sebaai had visited Mubarak at Sharm El-Sheikh International Hospital, and subsequently issued a statement saying that Mubarak's health made it impossible for him to be moved to Cairo to face investigation and trial. El-Sebaai's findings provoked a furious reaction from the 25 January movements. They accused the chief coroner of fabricating reports about Mubarak's health "in the same way he falsified reports into the death of Khaled Said", the young Alexandrian beaten to death by two policemen in Alexandria in 2010. As a result, El-Sebaai was removed from his position on 4 May and replaced by Ihsan Kamel. He also visited Sharm El-Sheikh prior to releasing a report that concluded that, "Mubarak suffers from irregular heart palpitations and severe depression." Khaled Fahmi, a professor at the American University in Cairo, told the Los Angeles Times that controversy continued to surround the medical reports that preclude the accused ex-president from being detained in jail and that many Egyptians believe they are no more than a pretext to prevent him receiving a capital sentence. El-Sayed Abdel-Aziz Omar, chairman of the Cairo Appeals Court, under whose jurisdiction the North Cairo Criminal Court falls, has said that "if it is found that trying Mubarak in Cairo poses security risks for the judges, or if he is too ill to be moved to Cairo, the court will ask the minister of justice to allow the trial to be held at the Sharm El-Sheikh hospital." Meanwhile, Ali Hassan, a judicial analyst affiliated to Egypt's Justice Ministry, argues that the courts can proceed with a trial regardless of the defendant's health since "there are precedents for defendants appearing in court on life-support machines". On Tuesday Minister of Health Ashraf Hatem announced that Mubarak's health was stable. Interior Minister Mansour El-Eissawi has already stated security forces were ready to secure the trial of Mubarak wherever it is held. Prosecution sources have indicated that it is "a matter of days" before a military tribunal begins investigating allegations filed against Mubarak that he creamed off substantial sums from American military assistance to Egypt. Gamal Zahran, a professor of political sciences at Suez Canal University, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "the plethora of misleading statements are intended to cast a veil over the real state of Mubarak's health and shield him from the embarrassment of a public trial". "One official will announce Mubarak is on his deathbed, then another says his health is stable. The end result is the public knows nothing." What is now clear, Zahran insists, "is that huge pressure is being exerted to manipulate Mubarak's trial even before it begins."
