CAIRO, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Security sources said Sunday that prominent opposition leader Ayman Nour has been taken to hospital after his condition deteriorated from a hunger strike.
They said Nour, the head of the liberal al-Ghad Party, was receiving treatment in a prison hospital, but gave no further details.
Al-Ghad Party said in a statement late Saturday that Nour's health deteriorated from a hunger strike he started a week ago to protest a court decision to keep him incarcerated during his trial on charges of forging documents to form his party.
It speculated that Nour, a diabetic, may have slipped into a coma. But security officials said the man was in stable condition after he was given the necessary treatment.
Nour, 41, ran and lost against President Hosni Mubarak in last fall's presidential poll and lost his parliamentary seat to a candidate from the ruling National Democratic Party last month.
The dissident, who accused the authorities of fraud during the elections, faces a 15-year prison term if the court convicts him of forging documents.
