CAIRO, (Reuters) – Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades until overthrown by last year, was on life support in hospital, military officials said today, but they denied a report he was clinically dead.
Earlier the state news agency, amid high tension over the election of a new president, quoted medical sources as saying the former head of state, aged 84, was “clinically dead”. That description was used also to Reuters by a hospital source.
But three sources in the military and security services, which retain control following the revolt, said Mubarak was being kept alive and said they would not use the expression “clinically dead” to describe his condition.
General Said Abbas, a member of the ruling military council,
told Reuters, that Mubarak had suffered a stroke but added: “Any talk of him being clinically dead is nonsense.”
Another military source said: “He is completely unconscious. He is using artificial respiration.”
A security source also gave the same account and said: “It is still early to say that he is clinically dead.”
