Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in coma

Cairo: A week after being sent to prison to begin serving a life sentence, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Monday fell into a coma. According to CNN, the information was confirmed by an Interior Ministry official.

On Sunday, with rumors of the former president's death spreading rapidly, authorities granted his wife, former first lady Suzanne Mubarak, and the couple's two daughters-in-law special permission to visit him in Cairo's Torah prison.

"The former president's health is in decline, but now it's stable in its deteriorated state," an official said. Since his wife's visit, Mubarak suffered from an irregular heartbeat and required assistance in breathing.

An Interior Ministry official, speaking to CNN, confirmed that the former president had fallen into a coma.

The official told The Associated Press that the former president now lives only on liquids and yogurt. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Mubarak's health is reported to have collapsed since his June 2 conviction for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising that overthrew him in 2011. His life sentence saw him transferred immediately to a prison hospital, instead of the military hospital and other facilities where he had been held since his April 2011 arrest.

(With Additional Inputs from AP)

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