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Subscribe to RSSHosni Mubarak's personal attorney says that the ousted Egyptian leader's condition has stabilized since suffering a stroke. NBC's Richard Engel reports from Cairo.
Egypt’s state news agency said former President Hosni Mubarak is "clinically dead" after multiple strokes, but a lawyer for Mubarak told NBC News early Wednesday that the ousted leader was clinging to life.
Mubarak, 84, had reportedly suffered multiple strokes and heart failure and had been moved late Tuesday to a military hospital from the prison hospital where he was being treated. He was reported to be on life support.
His health has been deteriorating since 3 p.m. (9 a.m. ET), his lawyers told NBC. He suffered two or three strokes and his heart had to be restarted with a defibrillator, they said.
Video on Hayat TV showed an ambulance taking Mubarak to Maadi military hospital, the same one where his predecessor Anwar Sadat was declared dead more than 30 years ago after being gunned down by Islamic militants.
"He is in really bad shape," a U.S. official told NBC News.
The confusion over the state of health of the former leader came as his longtime opponents in the Muslim Brotherhood claimed victory of their candidate, Mohammed Morsi, over Ahmed Shafiq, a candidate drawn from the military elite in a presidential election held over the weekend.
An 18-day uprising ended Mubarak’s 30-year rule on Feb. 11, 2011, sparking months of social unrest and political turmoil.
Speculation about Mubarak's health had swirled since he was jailed effectively for life on June 2 for failing to halt the killings of hundreds of the protesters who toppled him.
Philippe Bouchon / AFP - Getty Images
The President of Egypt for nearly 30 years, Mubarak was an advocate for peace in the Middle East and a major U.S. ally, but Egyptians eventually grew tired of his corrupt regime and he was ousted in a popular revolt in February 2011.
He had been moved to Tora prison hospital from a plush military hospital where he was held during the 10-month trial.
Critics had said his illness was being exaggerated to win public sympathy. Egypt's official news agency earlier this month denied reports that Mubarak had slipped into a coma.
Slideshow: Life of Hosni Mubarak
Egypt's prison authority on June 11 approved a request to let Mubarak's eldest son, Alaa, who is being held at the jail pending trial, stay close to him in the prison hospital because of his deteriorating health, security sources said.
His youngest son, Gamal, once viewed as heir-apparent to the presidency and who is also detained pending trial, was moved closer to him earlier.
Mubarak’s wife, Suzanne, and the wives of his two sons visited him earlier this month and demanded he be moved to a hospital outside prison.
This report from Charlene Gubash, NBC News Cairo producer, includes information from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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Dead men tell no tales.
Former strongmen die within a year of falling from power.
No one will miss him when he is gone, even though at one time, he was beloved by his own people.
Don't be too sure. We miss the Shah of Iran and he's been gone for decades. Mubarak followed the same path as the Shah and his passing will create the same chaotic conditions that exist in and because of Iran. Iran used to be the most civilized nation in the Mideast. It had the most modern universities and institutions. Women wore western clothing and Iran kept the peace in the region. When Carter dumped the Shah, we got the Ayatollah. Good luck with that.
GOOD... There is not a single honest Leader of any Arab Nation.Him leaving changed nothing anyway.More Barbarians and the Military just took over the Country. I hate it for the good people of the Mid Eastern Nations but they need to get out.Anyone that stays is destroyed by a few nukes placed strategically to rid the world of the morons.
Call me Hitler,thats cool but they need to die.
Waaaaah.
Geeez........... nothing more than a lynch mob online................ ewww...........
He's taking the Joe Paterno path to death. They're fine in their fantasy life where minions keep them pumped up with idolatry. But they're dead after barely getting their feet out the door when faced with a hard dose of reality and fate.
Anybody with half a brain and a memory of the Carter years knew what would happen to Egypt once Obama threw Mubarak under the bus. George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This all happened in the 1970s. We lost Iran when Carter kicked out the Shah. Egypt was lost when Mubarak left. Libya was lost when we allowed Quadaffi to fall. Now there will be war again. If Assad is kicked out of Syria, another nation will fall to the wacko Muslims. Next will be Saudi Arabia. Obama is following in Carter's footsteps but without Carter's nod to democracy. We may eventually lose Canada and Mexico to Muslims if Obama gets a second term. This whole stupid idea of "democracy" in the Mideast is ridiculous. Democracy evolves. You can't create a giraffe out of a horse and a ladder. It has to evolve on its own.
Forgive me, but somehow I don't have a memory of Mubarak having a statue of his fist grabbing a U.S. plane, or being implicated in blowing up a PanAm flight, so I would suggest something of a differentiation between him and Qadaffi.
check carefully for obscure needle marks on the body ...
It seems every day there are these stories about Mubarak "dying" and being brought back to life. I've never heard of anyone dying and being revived so many times. Preposterous.
remember dick ??..lmao..
He's surely not dead. This is just a scenario for the masses, thus they can pull him out of the country and he can continue enjoying his time somewhere else.
Plastic surgeons are very good nowadays and with his money he had more than enough capital to make it happen.
You do know this guy is 84 years old, don't you? "Continue enjoying his time" at 84 is more like waiting to die. He may have all the money in the world, but I doubt he cares about plastic surgery to conceal his identity at 84.
We should have stuck by our man in Egypt. Silly to oust a decent dictator just to allow worse extremists to take power! He's no Assad, so I dont see why the people were so eager to prosecute him and throw him out. Now they get to enjoy being controlled by the military council.
Bush was clinically brain dead and he governed for 8 years. Well really Dick Cheney had his hand up his a_— and used him like a hand puppet. Being brain dead don't keep you out of office in this country!
He's hanging out in a hospital room getting high on morphine and assorted painkillers. He isn't clinging to anything.
They can send his almost dead body to Israel. The Israeli
ghouls can hook him up to Sharon and they can die
happily ever after, together again.
Ha...can't think of anyone who deserves it more. But it shows that the 'revolution' could have waited about two years and then all those people wouldn't have had to die and they might not have a Military Junta running things now :)
No mention of the huge costs in both money and time squandered to keep that cruel autocrat clinging to existence day after day. I wonder how many poor children and others in desperate need could be fed, housed and clothed on that wasted money and time?
Mr. Mubarek suffered a heart attack when that verdict was reached. At his age, it's pretty clear that he was just destroyed to see how his people had turned on him. Egypt was one of the top tourist destinations in the world for decades. NOW? It's just a matter of looking around at what's happening to the other countries in the area who are being helped to "democracy" (pffftt) by those 'who care'..... Don't think for one millisecond that's their driving force. They're after power and money, and don't give two squats about human rights. NDAA and drones, anyone??
My thoughts are with you and your family, Mr. Mubarek.
I seriously doubt that compensates for all the rest of the dictator-style activity on his part.
It's not like he BUILT the pyramids. He just put out some brochures, erected an admission gate, and the tourists came.
all you HATERS, karma is going to come back n bury you... peace to Mr Mubarack
and all those prim-itives, jumping around chattering like monkeys in heat, yuck, get a job, take care of your kids, get a life... prims
Mubarak is clinically dead and Obama is Clinically brain dead . So whats new.
Larry Thacker, well said, ty!!
Mubarak was worse then Khadafi or Assad a United States puppet a useful idiot like Hawass and the rest of his cronies he won’t be missed moving on!
A lot of important people are now losing a good friend.
Tony Blair called Mubarak " immensely courageous and a force for good"
Dick Cheney Called him " my Good Friend"
Hillary Clinton stated in 2009 " I had a wonderful time with him this morning. I really consider President and Mrs Mubarak to be friends of my family"
Bush called him my good friend and had a state dinner honoring him.
Bill Clinton Stated " I don't think we would be where we are today if it wasn't for President Mubarak"
1.3 Billion in military aid per year given to Egypt from the U.S.
He was Praised for decades by all polititions on all sides.
Lesson to be learned. Never trust any politicain especially if he or she calls you a friend.
millions spent on Dickhead Cheney, no soul, no heart, a monster... now he has a heart when otherwise a decent person could have had it... he will destroy that too like everything else, shame on him what a selfish pig
This is just a political stunt.
They announce this cr-ap just after the elections?
Someone wanted this kind of rhetoric BS death chant to ring loud for some kind of reason or another.
The man was either already dead, or someone was keeping him around for political reasons.
The timing is too perfect, and now with the new Brotherhood scumbags ruling the stage, they decide to issue this kind of BS death news?
Ya right.
There is a political reason for why this was done, and done at this precise time.
Its a distraction for the people while there new leaders get ready to f---k them over even more in the months to come.
You thought this guy was bad, wait until your new leaders get into full action with the help of the military eventually.
Later.
You don't think a feeble old man in his mid-80's could just die when what he cares about is taken from him? Like Joe Paterno? Like several old men of my acquaintence in this little place who died almost as soon as their wives did? He loved power the way that Paterno loved being head coach and the way that the old men I knew loved their wives; and giving it up the way that he was forced to, knowing that his sons wouldn't replace him as he had planned, and then facing the public humiliation of being put on "trial" in a cage (a show trial that I think would've done Stalin proud) had to be killing him, maybe the news of his old colleague losing the election to replace him was just the final blow.
Of course I'm fool enough to think that Ken Lay is dead, too (and at least in part for the same reason, although far younger), so what do I know?
If you had waited he might have died and you didn't have to have the revolution. Now you have had elections and the wrong guy won and the military refuses to relinquish power. Congratulations you got it really screwed up now. Both candidates claim victory and there will be another civil war. If the Islamic Brotherhood gets in women's right will go out the window. You wanted democracy and religious freedom you got it and it doesn't work over there.