New Coma Report About Mubarak

By Mark Memmott • Jun 11, 2012

An image grab taken from Egyptian state TV shows ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak sitting inside a cage in a courtroom during his verdict hearing in Cairo on June 2.

AFP/Getty Images

Originally published on June 11, 2012 8:49 am

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak "entered today into a full coma," according to Interior Ministry spokesman Alaa Mahmoud, CNN says.

Piers Scholfield of the BBC, though, reports on his Twitter page that a ministry spokesman has told his nework that Mubarak, 84, "has some health problems but is not in a coma."

Reports about whether Mubarak is or isn't in a coma have been swirling in recent days. We'll watch for more definitive word. And NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is working the story in Cairo.

As The Associated Press writes:

"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."

Update at 10:50 a.m. ET. Mubarak Is Stable, State-Run Media Say:

From Cairo, Soraya tells our Newscast Desk that "state-run media outlets report that while Mubarak's condition deteriorated after the June 2 verdict, he is now stable." And, she adds that "his critics here claim the health scare is aimed at building public support for his being allowed to leave the prison."