Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who will go on trial August 3 on charges of corruption and ordering protesters killed, is also suffering from stomach cancer, his attorney said Monday.
According to a report in The Associated Press, the lawyer said that Mubarak, who was treated in Germany last year for cancer in his gallbladder and pancreas, may now be suffering a recurrence that spread to his stomach.
The lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, confirmed in a conversation with AP that Mubarak underwent “critical surgery” in Heidelberg, Germany, last year. He added that “There is evidence suggesting that there is a recurrence of cancer and that it has reached the stomach.”
El-Deeb, who called Mubarak’s condition “horrible,” said the former leader “doesn’t eat and he loses consciousness quite often.” He added that that the possible recurrence could stem from Mubarak’s skipping medical checkups in Germany that should have taken place every four months.
However, AP cited two senior Egyptian medical officials, one of them the head of Mubarak’s team of doctors, as having said the former president does not have the disease. Assem Azzam, the head of Mubarak’s medical team in the Sharm el-Sheikh hospital, told AP, “All medical checkups show that he doesn't have cancer. This is not true at all. His condition in general is stable.”
Another top medical official in the hospital said Mubarak is only suffering from heart troubles, and that “he is not even inside intensive care. He is in a normal room.”
Mubarak reportedly suffered a heart attack during questioning by the country’s new government in April, and has been hospitalized ever since. He, along with his two sons, will face trial on charges he ordered the killings of protesters during the 18-day uprising which resulted in his ousting in February. If convicted, he could face execution.
His lawyer’s claims are consistent with a report last week in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai, which said that Mubarak’s health has deteriorated and that he is receiving oxygen to the brain. The report also said that Mubarak’s colon cancer is spreading and threatens to enter the final pre-death stage.