Mubarak may be exempted from prison attire

Cairo: Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, in prison to serve a life sentence, may not be obliged to wear the distinctive blue prison uniform, according to a state-run newspaper.

“He is likely to be exempted from this part of prison regulations due to his health condition,” Al Ahram reported on Monday quoting a security official at the Tora Prison.

Mubarak, 84, was flown Saturday to the prison complex near Cairo after a court handed him a life sentence on charges of complicity in killing 846 protesters in a revolt that toppled him in February last year.

He reportedly suffered a heart attack upon his arrival at the prison.

Mubarak is staying at a well-equipped intense care unit manned by a five-member medical team at the prison hospital, according to sources.

His two sons, Ala’a and Jamal, on remand in the same prison, have requested to be transferred to a place near their father, the sources added.

Their request is likely to be approved under a rule of “reunion” applied by prisons in Egypt, said the sources who asked not to be identified.