Mubarak's condition shows 'slight' improvement

Ousted president treated for bed sores as his condition shows "slight improvement".

CAIRO // Hosni Mubarak's condition showed "slight" improvement on Wednesday and the ousted president was visited in his prison hospital by a physiotherapist to treat him for bed sores. But security officials said he is refusing prison food and is suspicious of his doctors.

The officials at Torah prison, where the 84-year-old Mubarak is serving a life sentence, said he ate yoghurt and drank juice, apparently brought in by visitors. He was being given liquids and vitamins intravenously. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

Mubarak's two sons, detained in Torah while awaiting trial on charges of insider trading, were by his side in the intensive care unit of the prison's hospital.

Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison on June 2 for failing to prevent the killing of protesters during the uprising that toppled his regime 16 months ago. His lawyer, Farid El Deeb, said on Monday that Mubarak did not trust his doctors and feared they were out to kill him.

Since his arrival at the prison directly after his sentencing, Mubarak has been suffering from high blood pressure and breathing difficulties and deep depression, according to prison officials.

On Monday, doctors used a defibrillator on him twice after they could not find his pulse.

His lawyer said the decision to transfer him to the prison hospital was a surprise to him and his team, because despite pressure from parliament and protesters to send Mubarak to prison, his doctors had said his condition does not permit it.

Since he was detained in April 2011, Mubarak had spent time in a luxury suite of a hospital in his favorite Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh. He was later transferred to a military hospital on the outskirts of Cairo after his trial began in August, where he was regularly visited by family, and where he was said to have exercised and appeared in pictures on his feet, unlike his appearances in court on a stretcher.

After he was sentenced, Mubarak refused to leave the helicopter that transferred him to the prison for hours.