Mubarak defibrillated twice after his heart stopped: prison source

Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who has been in critical condition since moving to prison, was defibrillated twice after his heart stopped on Monday, a prison hospital source told AFP.

Mubarak’s “heart stopped twice. Doctors had to use a defibrillator. He has been in and out of consciousness and has been refusing food,” the source said.

Mubarak was sent to prison on June 2 to begin serving a life sentence after being found guilty of failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising that overthrew him in 2011. Since then, his health has been rapidly deteriorating, according to Egyptian media reports, with rumors of his death spreading rapidly.

Authorities have 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 early on Sunday.

Since his wife’s visit, Mubarak has suffered from an irregular heartbeat and required assistance in breathing.

On Wednesday, prison sources told Al Arabiya that Mubarak’s health is “severely deteriorating.” Sources inside Cairo’s Tora said that Mubarak collapsed following visits on Monday by his wife Suzanne, and his sons Alaa and Gamal. His wife reportedly sobbed after she saw him in a prison suit.

Alaa was reportedly moved to a cell near his father, whose personal doctors were not allowed to oversee his health condition.

On Saturday Mubarak’s wife was denied access to the Intensive Care Unit where he was placed, as authorities limit family visitations to one a month.

According to security officials quoted by al-Masry al-Youm daily, Mrs. Mubarak lashed out at wardens for not giving her husband permission to seek treatment outside the prison. “You will be responsible for his death,” she allegedly said.

On Saturday, Egypt’s state run news agency MENA quoted officials as saying that Mubarak is at risk of stroke, quoting a medical team’s report.

Other media reports said that his lawyer Farid al-Deeb informed him that he will soon be transferred back to a military facility in the Cairo suburb of Maadi.