Ailing former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has not eaten for four days, but a delay in his trial scheduled for next week may spark a new uprising among skeptical Egyptians who demand he be brought to justice.
Mubarak was ousted earlier this year after his security forces and army killed more than 800 demonstrators and wounded thousands of others protesting corruption, nepotism and denial of political and human rights.
The provisional military regime that has been ruling Egypt since Mubarak’s ouster has charged the former president with a host of criminal offenses, but his deteriorating health condition has delayed judicial proceedings.
When Mubarak first went into a coma after being arrested, tens of thousands of protesters accused him of feigning illness to evade policed questioning. Further delays in his trial are bound to anger his opponents who also do not trust the military regime.
Mubarak is under house arrest in a hospital in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh and has consumed only liquids the past four days.
He has been charged with stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the government’s treasury as well as with murdering of protesters, offenses that could be punishable by death.
Before his ouster, Mubarak rejected suggestions that he leave the country, saying, "I will die in Egypt.”