Mubarak health drama adds to the uncertainty

Hosni Mubarak’s move out of jail to a Cairo military hospital where officials said he was slipping in and out of a coma yesterday has created a fresh sense of uncertainty for Egyptians as the wait for results of a presidential election drags on. Exactly what ails the 84-year-old, who ruled for 30 years till last year, is unclear but two security sources and one of his defence lawyers described his condition as “almost stable” or “on the way to stability” in an intensive care suite, with doctors occasionally using a ventilator to help him breathe. Though now a convict serving a life sentence, Mubarak was being treated in one of Egypt’s best-equipped facilities in a leafy suburb by the Nile. It has prompted some Egyptians to suspect a ruse, connived at by the brother officers who have replaced him, to get their fallen leader out from behind bars. Mubarak’s health has been a subject of intense speculation since he was jailed for life on June 2, casting his shadow over the political transition and reminding the nation that, 16 months after his fall, few questions have been answered about where Egypt is heading and whether democracy will take root. Reflecting the multiple levels of uncertainty, newspaper headlines pondering the outcome of the presidential vote vied with those reporting the unclear status of the former president’s health after his evening transfer from the medical unit of Cairo’s Tora prison to the Maadi military hospital. “Mubarak in a coma between life and death,” wrote Al Akhbar newspaper, below a headline on the row between the presidential candidates over who won: “Future president in the realm of the unknown.” One of Mubarak’s defence lawyers, Mohamed Abdel Razek, described the former president “almost stable” blaming his lack of proper treatment at the prison for his condition. “The president still goes in and out of comas and had a stroke and all of this requires a hospital with special medical equipment that would be able to treat his condition,” he said. That description was broadly echoed by two security sources, one of whom said Mubarak’s health was “on its way to stability”. A few dozen people gathered overnight outside the smart, whitewashed hospital building set in pleasant gardens. The shah of Iran, ousted in the 1979 Islamic revolution, spent his last days and died there. Anwar Sadat, whose 1981 assassination by Islamists propelled Mubarak, his vice president, into power, was taken to the same hospital, but declared dead on arrival. Some of those congregating outside were curious bystanders who heard a famous patient was inside, others were there to show support. One held a poster of Mubarak, resplendent in ceremonial uniform, with the caption: “History will be the judge.” “Mubarak has been dead since his people sentenced him to prison and threw him in Tora. His people wronged him and did not give him his rights,” said Loola Yamany, 50. She was one of a handful of people there yesterday morning. Many Egyptians have been sceptical. Some protested that he was not sentenced to death. Many suspect his fellow generals, who pushed him aside to appease the protesters, of arranging a more agreeable confinement for him, in conditions beyond the dreams of most of his fellow citizens. During his 10-month trial, he appeared on a hospital stretcher, routinely flown in by helicopter from another plush military hospital, on Cairo’s desert outskirts. Though his state of health at that time was unclear, one medical source said he had been free to stroll in the grounds or take a swim. Mubarak’s legal team had been pressing to have him moved from the prison hospital to a better-equipped facility, saying he was not receiving adequate treatment for his condition. However, prison authorities previously refused to let him go. There has been no clear statement from independent medical experts on what ails Mubarak, though state media have reported a variety of illnesses from shortage of breath to heart attacks. A state news agency report on Tuesday that he was “clinically dead”, a condition normally defined by the lack of heartbeat and breathing and one from which patients can be revived, was followed by swift denials from military sources.