CAIRO- Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak broke a leg on Thursday in the Cairo military hospital where he has been detained for much of the time since his overthrow in 2011.
The 86-year-old, who prided himself on his health during his three decades in power before he was toppled in the Arab Spring, was on the way to the toilet when he had a fall, medical sources said.
The former strongman, who was handed a three-year jail term on corruption charges last month, could undergo surgery to fix his broken femur with screws, the sources added.
While in power, the veteran strongman, who famously survived a spate of assassination attempts, most of them blamed on Islamists, made much of his love of squash.
His fall from grace has not been reversed by the elevation to the presidency of a new ex-military man — Abdel Fattah al-Sisi — who led the army’s ouster of elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July last year.
Mubarak’s two sons Alaa and Gamal were also convicted last month of corruption, each receiving jail sentences of four years.
The former strongman was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 over the killings of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his rule.
But a court overturned the verdict on technical grounds and he is now being retried along with former interior minister Habib Al-Adly and six police commanders.
The trials of Mubarak and his aides have been overshadowed by those of Morsi and his supporters, many of whom have been sentenced to death in hurried mass trials amid a deadly crackdown against the Islamists.