Mubarak transfer to hospital likely: report

Hosni Mubarak’s health has deteriorated since the Egyptian ex-president was sent to prison on Saturday and it is likely he will moved to a hospital outside the jail where he is being held, the state news agency reported yesterday. Mubarak, 84, was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of hundreds of protesters during last year’s popular uprising. He was moved to Tora prison in Cairo. Mubarak was given artificial respiration five times in recent hours and doctors treating him recommended he be moved to a military hospital or back to the medical facility he was in prior to his conviction, security officials said. “Official sources saw as likely the possibility of his transfer to a military hospital ... based on a medical recommendation from the doctors treating him,” the state agency Mena reported. A medical committee from the interior ministry visited Mubarak and concluded that he had suffered several “heart crises”, the security sources said. The report from the committee said that if the prison is not prepared to deal with Mubarak, then he should be transferred. The deposed leader was suffering from nervous shock and an increase in his blood pressure, reported Mena, summarising the findings of a medical team which examined him. He is currently in an intensive care unit inside prison. l Hundreds demonstrated across Egypt yesterday to mark two years since the killing of Khaled Said, a young Egyptian beaten to death by police in 2010 who has become a protest symbol. People lined the seafront of Said’s hometown Alexandria, holding pictures of people who died during the uprising that overthrew Mubarak. Others demonstrated outside Said’s home, or accompanied his mother and sister to visit his grave. Said, 28, was arrested in an Alexandria Internet cafe and beaten to death by policemen. His killing angered caused nationwide outrage and prompted youth activists to set up the “We are all Khaled Said” Facebook page in his memory. The page now has 2mn members, and was one of the first to call for protests against Mubarak’s regime on January 25 last year. Said became the symbol of police repression and of the uprising that overthrew Mubarak. Similar protests in memory of Said were organised in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, in the canal city of Ismailiya and Assiut in central Egypt.