Mubarak resumes eating after short-lived hunger strike, reports say

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has been refusing food and medical treatment, Egyptian news outlets reported Monday.

According to reports, Mubarak demanded to see his personal physician and then went on a hunger strike, also refusing his medicine.

Mubarak was sentenced in June to life in prison for failing to stop the killing of hundreds of protesters during last year’s uprising against him. After three weeks in a prison hospital, Mubarak was transferred to a top military hospital amid reports that his health had deteriorated.

He was returned to the prison hospital last month.

The supposed hunger strike was short-lived as his son Gamal convinced him to eat and go back on his medication.

An assistant to the Egyptian prisons minister was quoted on Egyptian online news outlet el Youm el Saba as saying that there is “no basis” to the “rumors” of Mubarak’s hunger strike. The same assistant said that Mubarak was suffering from a severe mental disturbance that was affecting his health.

AP contributed to this report.