Lawyer: Hosni Mubarak fears prison doctors want him dead

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Hosni Mubarak's condition stabilised on Tuesday but his lawyer said the 84-year old former president does not trust his doctors in the prison hospital and fears they are out to kill him.

There have been conflicting reports about Mubarak's condition since a court convicted him on June 2 of failing to prevent the killings of protesters in the uprising that ousted him last year.

He was sentenced to life in prison. Since his arrival at the prison, the 84-year old Mubarak has been suffering from high blood pressure and breathing difficulties and is diagnosed with deep depression, according to security officials at Torah prison.

On Monday, doctors used a defibrillator on him twice after they could not find a pulse.

In a late night TV program on Monday, Mubarak's lawyer Farid el-Deeb said he had asked concerned authorities to transfer Mubarak to a better equipped military hospital because of his fragile health.

El-Deeb painted a picture of a paranoid man who does not trust the medical team in the prison and who has at times resisted their instructions. He was speaking on CBC, a private TV station.

"Mubarak doesn't trust anyone anymore. He was surprised to find new doctors treating him, not the ones who treated him before, and is afraid to take anything from anyone. He doesn't recognise the faces around him. This is a big problem for him," el-Deeb said.

At one point, Mubarak told his lawyer that he fears his doctors are out to kill him. "'Help me Farid,' he said in a very faint voice," el-Deeb quoted Mubarak as saying.

"He said: 'I'm uncomfortable and I don't feel safe. I feel they are ordered to kill me.'"

The lawyer said the decision to transfer him to the prison hospital was a surprise to him and his team, because despite pressure from parliament and protesters to transfer Mubarak to prison, his doctors had said his condition does not permit it.