fbpx

News

Egyptian sources: Mubarak declared clinically dead

[ssba]

Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades until ousted by mass demonstrations last year, was declared clinically dead by his doctors yesterday, the state news agency MENA said in a report confirmed by a hospital source.

Mubarak is 84 and had just been sentenced to life in prison earlier this month.

In conflicting reports, two security sources said Mubarak is unconscious and on a respirator but is not clinically dead. “He is completely unconscious. He is using artificial respiration,” one military source told Reuters, after the state news agency reported he was clinically dead after being taken from a prison medical facility to a military hospital. Another separate security source gave the same account and dismissed a report issued by the state news agency saying: “It is still early to say that he is clinically dead.”

The reports of Mubarak’s death come amidst growing tensions over his succession in the presidency – with both the remaining candidates claiming to have won last weekend’s presidential election. The developments add further layers to what is threatening to become a new chapter of unrest in Egypt, 16 months after a popular uprising demanding democracy ousted Mubarak.

The campaign of Mubarak’s former-prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, said on Tuesday he had won Egypt’s presidential election, countering the Muslim Brotherhood’s claim of victory for its candidate, Mohammed Morsi.

The election commission is set to announce the official final results on Thursday and no matter who it names as victor, his rival is likely to reject the result as a fraud. If Shafiq is declared winner in particular, it could spark a backlash from the Brotherhood.