Ministry official says Mubarak in coma

CAIRO, June 11 (UPI) -- Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, recently sentenced to life in prison, was in a coma Monday in a Cairo prison hospital, an official said.

"Mubarak entered today into full coma. His two sons Gamal and Alaa submitted a request to the prison authority to move beside him and it has been accepted," Interior Ministry spokesman Alaa Mahmoud said. "His health has been deteriorating since the verdict, with high blood pressure, problems breathing and irregular heartbeat."

The sons are also in prison, facing insider trading charges.

Mubarak, 84, was sentenced June 2 for his complicity in the killing of protesters in last year's Egyptian uprising.

His lawyer, Fareed el-Deeb, said the former leader is in a "very critical" condition, CNN reported.

"I visited him on Saturday and he fell in and out of consciousness three times. He has water concentrated around the heart, which can develop into a heart attack or brain blood clot and would require a rescue operation within 60 minutes," El Deeb said.

Mubarak has been in the Torah prison hospital since he was sentenced.