CAIRO: A Red Sea hospital on Sunday denied a report that Egypt's ailing former president Hosni Mubarak had fallen into a "full coma," two weeks before he is due to go on trial for murder and corruption.
"The former president is in a full coma after his health suddenly deteriorated," state television quoted Mubarak's lawyer as saying.
But minutes later, the head of the hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where Mubarak is being treated denied that the former strongman, now 83, had gone into a coma, the channel reported.
"Sharm el-Sheikh hospital chief denies reports of Mubarak coma," according to a scrolling headline on the television.
However, another medical source was less clearcut, telling AFP: "It seems there has been some deterioration in his health, but the reports of a coma are still unclear."
Mubarak has been in the Sharm el-Sheikh hospital since April when he suffered a heart attack during questioning over alleged fraud and the killing of protesters during the uprising which ousted him in February.
The former president has denied accusations he was involved in corruption and ordered the killing of protesters during the unrest that broke out on January 25, leaving nearly 850 people dead and more than 6,000 injured.
"I would never participate in the killing of Egyptian citizens and would never seize state money and I have never acquired anything illegally," he told investigators, in a transcript published by the independent daily Al-Dustur.
"I gave orders to deal with the protesters without violence, peacefully, without the use of weapons, or bullets or even carrying weapons during the protests," Mubarak reportedly said.
The former president is due to go on trial on August 3.
On Saturday, officials said Mubarak's trial would most likely be held in Sharm el-Sheikh for security reasons.
He could either be put in the dock or questioned by court officials in his hospital room, with the rest of the trial proceedings taking place in a court room, the official said.
An interior ministry official told AFP the trial location "has not been completely settled, but Mubarak will most likely be tried in Sharm el-Sheikh."
It was not immediately clear whether his two sons would be transferred to a Sharm el-Sheikh prison from Cairo if the hearings take place in the resort.
Protesters who have staged a sit-in for more than a week in Cairo's Tahrir Square, epicentre of the demonstrations that ousted Mubarak, demand his transfer to Cairo and accuse the ruling military of delaying the trials of former regime officials.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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