Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
Former Egyptian President Hosni MubarakIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was defibrillated twice after his heart stopped on Monday, a prison hospital source told AFP.

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

Earlier, an interior ministry source told AFP Mubarak’s condition was “critical but stable”, as officials weigh transferring him to a Cairo hospital.

The 84-year-old was sentenced to life behind bars for suppressing a revolt against his rule in early 2011 during which nearly 850 protesters were killed.

His medical condition deteriorated and he suffered an emotional breakdown after being moved to Tora prison on the outskirts of Cairo on June 2, where he remains in intensive care in the prison hospital.

He has suffered from acute depression since his transfer, as well as periodic increases in blood pressure and shortness of breath, the interior ministry source told AFP. His family has formally requested a transfer to a Cairo hospital.

Earlier on Monday it was reported that Mubarak is in state of coma but a report on Kol Yisrael radio on Monday night said that Egyptian television denied those reports.

According to Kol Yisrael, Mubarak's condition is unstable and he has trouble breathing but he is not in a coma.

Unconfirmed reports on numerous Egyptian websites claiming that Mubarak was dead were firmly denied on Sunday by the country's Interior Ministry.

A presidential runoff in Egypt next week will pit Mubarak’s former prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, against the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi.