Egypt's ex-president Mubarak in critical condition

PanARMENIAN.Net - Egypt's ailing former president Hosni Mubarak is slipping in and out of consciousness eight days after he was transferred to a hospital inside a Cairo prison to serve his life sentence, a security official said on Sunday, June 10.

In order to squash rumors of his death, authorities granted his wife, former first lady Suzanne Mubarak, and her two daughters-in-law special permission to visit him early on Sunday morning, according to the official who spoke from inside Torah prison.

Since then, he has suffered from an irregular heartbeat and required assistance in breathing. The official said that Mubarak lives only on liquids and yogurt. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized 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, according to The Associated Press.