Mubarak morale down after Morsi victory: Sources

Morsi's presidential victory depressed Mubarak, worsening his health: Officials.

CAIRO: Egypt's ailing former strongman Hosni Mubarak is slipping in and out of a coma and his morale has plunged after news of Mohamed Morsi's victory in the presidential polls, officials told AFP on Wednesday.

"The former president has been greatly affected by the news of Morsi's presidential victory," said one of the officials at a Cairo military hospital where Mubarak was transferred last week.

"According to medical reports, Mubarak's morale has worsened. He is in depression and slips in and out of coma," the official who declined to be named told AFP.

"His medical team is carrying out all sorts of tests on his brain and heart," the source added.

Morsi, candidate of the formerly banned Muslim Brotherhood in the June 16-17 election, was confirmed as Egypt's first democratically elected civilian president on Sunday, succeeding Mubarak.

Last week Mubarak was moved from jail, where he is serving a life sentence, to a military hospital in Cairo amid uncertainty over his health.

On June 20, a medical source told AFP that the 84-year-old former president was "in a coma and the doctors are trying to revive him."

"He has been placed on an artificial respirator," the source added, in an account confirmed by a member of Egypt's ruling military council, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.

Mubarak was taken to a Cairo prison on June 2, after a court handed down a life sentence against him over his involvement in the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ousted him from power.

His health deteriorated after the transfer, with doctors defibrillating him twice earlier this month, and reports saying he was suffering from bouts of depression, high blood pressure and shortness of breath.