Egypt's ex-president Mubarak detained for further 15 days

Ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak will be detained by the country’s state prosecutor for a further 15 days amid a probe into a bloody crackdown on protesters and corruption, Mena news agency said Friday. 

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The former president has been in custody in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh since 13 April on suspicion of involvement in the deadly crackdown and having a role in a controversial deal to supply natural gas to Israel at lower than market prices.

“The state prosecutor Abdel Maguid Mahmud decided to renew the detention of ex-president Hosni Mubarak for 15 days for questioning,” the agency reported.

Mubarak’s former oil minister Sameh Fahmi was remanded into custody on Thursday for his alleged role in selling the underpriced gas.

Although there have been conflicting reports on Mubarak’s state of health and the reason he was hospitalised, the state news agency on Thursday reported that the former leader’s condition was indeed unstable.

The state prosecutor’s office had earlier ordered a medical team to verify whether the ousted president was healthy enough to be transferred to Cairo, to a prison cell or hospital.

Mubarak’s two sons and several of his former ministers and aides are being held in a Cairo prison on corruption and abuse charges.