Officials Say Mubarak’s Health Is Worsening Rapidly

CAIRO — Former President Hosni Mubarak’s health has deteriorated so sharply since he was sentenced to life in prison on Saturday that authorities are close to a decision to return him to a hospital outside the penal system, Interior Ministry officials said on Wednesday
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Before his sentencing, he had been confined to hospitals but not jailed. Relocating Mr. Mubarak, 84, would stoke five days of street protests over the verdicts handed down against him and several top security officials last weekend in a trial for corruption and the killing of protesters.

On Wednesday, the state news agency said that he had suffered several heart attacks, a nervous breakdown, high blood pressure and severe depression since his transfer to a prison hospital. He was in the hospital’s intensive care unit and on a ventilator, the state news agency said.

Security officials said Wednesday that an Interior Ministry medical committee had examined him and recommended moving him to a military hospital or other medical center.

An extraordinary crowd of tens of thousands flooded central squares of the capital and other cities Tuesday night in scenes rivaling the early days of the protests that brought him down. And the outrage has become a powerful but unpredictable variable in the runoff set for June 16 and 17 to decide Egypt’s first competitive presidential election in which Mr. Mubarak’s last prime minister, Ahmed Shafik, faces Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamist group.

In separate political twist, the Supreme Constitutional Court said on Wednesday that on June 14, two days before the vote, it would weigh in on legal challenges to the legitimacy of both the presidential and recent parliamentary elections. Among other things, the court will consider the application of suspended legislation that would disqualify Mr. Shafik and other top officials of the Mubarak government from the presidency, which could lead to a repeat of the voting.

If the court upholds the law, the separate presidential election commission has said that it still intends to rule on any possible application of the law.

The threat of legal intervention cast a new shadow over an unpredictable race that has already seen the disqualification of three front-runners just weeks before the first round, allegations of fraud by popular candidates who failed to make the runoff and the Mubarak verdict just two weeks before the vote.

Although Mr. Mubarak had been detained for the last 10 months in private hospital rooms instead of a prison cell because he complained of health problems, independent news reports said last week that he was well enough to receive visitors, stroll the grounds and swim daily.

Since Mr. Mubarak was carried by helicopter to the Tora prison Saturday, state media have released a steady stream of leaks about his deepening depression and worsening health. He reportedly complained of a health crisis while still in the helicopter and refused to leave for two and a half hours. He was fed intravenously through the night, the reports said, although his health was said to improve when his sons — who are being held in the same prison — were brought nearer to him.

Culled from Newyork Times