Security sources conflict reports, saying Mubarak is unconscious and on a respirator but not clinically dead; reports follow announcement that ex-Egyptian president suffered stroke and was moved to military hospital.
Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for three decades until overthrown by the Egypt uprising last year, was declared clinically dead by his doctors on Tuesday, the state news agency MENA said in a report confirmed by a hospital source.
Mubarak was 84 and had been sentenced to life in prison earlier this month.
"Former president Hosni Mubarak has clinically died following his arrival at Maadi military hospital on Tuesday evening," MENA said, quoting medical sources.
"Mubarak's heart stopped beating and was subjected to a defibrillator several times but did not respond."
In conflicting reports, two security sources said Mubarak is unconscious and on a respirator but is not clinically dead. "He is completely unconscious. He is using artificial respiration," one military source told Reuters, after the state news agency reported he was clinically dead after being taken from a prison medical facility to a military hospital.
Another separate security source gave the same account and dismissed the report issued by the state news agency saying: "It is still early to say that he is clinically dead."
The reports come just as a potentially explosive fight opened over who will succeed him as president, with both candidates claiming to have won last weekend's presidential election.
The developments add further layers to what is threatening to become a new chapter of unrest and political power struggles in Egypt, 16 months after Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising demanding democracy.
The campaign of Mubarak's former prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, said Tuesday he has won Egypt's presidential election, countering the Muslim Brotherhood's claim of victory for its candidate, Mohammed Morsi.
The election commission is to announce the official final results on Thursday and no matter who it names as victor, his rival is likely to reject the result as a fraud. If Shafiq is declared winner in particular, it could spark an explosive backlash from the Brotherhood.
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