Conflicting Reports Over Whether Hosni Mubarak Is in a Coma
July 17, 2011 — -- There have been conflicting reports about former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's health today, after his lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, said the ousted leader suffered a stroke and was in a coma.
El-Deeb told The Associated Press that doctors were working to bring the 83-year-old Mubarak back to consciousness.
But El-Deeb has made claims about Mubrarak's health in the past that have been questioned, and since his announcement, hospital officials have gone back and forth about whether the ex-president is ill at all.
Shortly after El-Deeb's statement, a medical official in Sharm El Sheikh Hospital denied on Egyptian state television that Mubarak had been admitted and that he had slipped into a coma.
After that initial report, however, Mohamed Fathalla, the head of the Sharm el-Sheikh facility, said the lawyer's statement about Mubarak's condition was correct, according to CNN.
"Yes, he is in a coma," Fathalla said, according to CNN.
Dr. Assem Azzam, the head of the medical team supervising Hosni Mubarak's health, then denied Fathalla's statement, saying that Mubarak had suffered a bout of low blood pressure and felt dizzy but is now stable, according to the AP.
Mubarak and his two sons have been ordered to stand trial for the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the country's revolution earlier this year. The three are due to go on trial on Aug. 3, and could face the death penalty if convicted of the charges. But many in Cairo doubt the trial will ever occur.
Egypt's prosecutor general made the announcement after weeks of investigation into the crackdown and alleged corruption. In a statement on Facebook, the prosecutor said that the crimes committed by Mubarak were "intentional murder, attempted killing of some demonstrators ... misuse of influence and deliberately wasting public funds and unlawfully making private financial gains and profits."
Mubarak was too ill to be moved to Cairo's Tora prison where his sons, Gamal and Alaa, are being held. Instead, he has remained at a hospital in the Rea Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh following a heart attack.
The former president resigned from office on February 11 after an enormous 18-day uprising that brought thousands upon thousands of Egyptians into the streets. More than 800 people died at the hands of security forces loyal to Mubarak. The Egyptian uprising helped fuel the so-called 'Arab Spring' that has since spread to Libya, Syria and Bahrain.
ABC News' Alex Marquardt contributed to this story.
