Mubarak suffers stroke in prison

Former Egyptian president is in a 'critical' condition and has been placed on a respirator.

Powered by automated translation

CAIRO // Hosni Mubarak has suffered a stroke in prison, Egypt's state television reported last night.

The report said the former Egyptian president was in "critical" condition and had been placed on a respirator.

Mubarak did not lose consciousness during the stroke, the official Mena news agency reported. It had previously said that doctors treated the former president with a defibrillator earlier because his "heart stopped."

He is now likely to be moved out of his prison hospital to a military facility nearby, an Egyptian prison official said.

Moving Mubarak out of prison would likely anger many in the public, where there is a widespread suspicion that security and military officials sympathetic to their old boss are giving him preferential treatment.

Mubarak was sentenced to a life in prison on June 2 for failing to stop the killing of protesters during last year's uprising against him. He was transferred to prison after spending months in a military facility in detention. Officials have since repeatedly reported his health was deteriorating.

Since his arrival at the prison directly after his sentencing, Mubarak has been suffering from high blood pressure and breathing difficulties and deep depression, according to prison officials. His lawyer said he didn't trust the doctors and appealed for his transfer to a better equipped hospital.

* Associated Press with additonal reports from Agence-France Presse