CAIRO: A top Egyptian interior ministry official has claimed ousted and recently jailed former dictator Hosni Mubarak is in a “full coma” at the Cairo Torah Prison where he is being held. The rumor mill has been in full swing in recent days concerning the elderly Mubarak's health, and reports over the weekend suggested that the 84-year-old had died. “Mubarak entered today into full coma. His two sons Gamal and Alaa submitted a request to the prison authority to move beside him and it has been accepted. His health has been deteriorating since the verdict, with high blood pressure, problems breathing, and irregular heart beat,” Interior Ministry spokesman Alaa Mahmoud said, in comments published by CNN. Mubarak's lawyer has submitted a request that he be moved from prison to a private hospital, Mahmoud said. Mubarak was sentenced to life in jail on June 2 after being found guilty of killing protesters during the uprising in January/February 2011 that forced him from power. Since the uprising, his lawyers and the military junta have repeatedly issued statements concerning the former dictator's health. News reports in the past 12 months have repeatedly claimed he had died, but the elder dictator, who doctors say suffers from depression, had appeared in court for all sessions, although in a hospital bed. Many activists believe the move is a ploy to allow the military junta to give permission for the former president to be moved to a more comfortable location for the remainder of his days.
