Mubarak's condition shows 'slight' improvement

Hosni Mubarak's condition showed "slight" improvement on Wednesday and the ousted president was visited in his prison hospital by a physiotherapist to treat him for bed sores. But security officials said he is refusing prison food and is suspicious of his doctors. Timeline: Mubarak trial April 13, 2011 Prosecutor general orders the detention of Mubarak and his sons, two months after he fled Cairo for Sharm El Sheikh. Mubarak was admitted to Sharm El Sheikh International Hospital a day before the arrest orders, while the sons are moved to Tora Prison in Cairo. April 26, 2011 The trial of Habib El Adly, the former minister or interior, and other officials from the ministry begins. They are accused of ordering the killing of protesters during the uprising. July 25, 2011 Judge in the New Cairo Criminal Court orders the case of El Adly and his top aides be combined with the Mubarak trial because of similarity of charges and evidence. August 3, 2011 Mubarak is flown to Cairo for the beginning of the trial. He is wheeled on a gurney into a cage in the courtroom. He and his sons appear in court for the first hearing. Afterwards, Mubarak was transferred to a military hospital in Cairo. August 15 – September 24, 2011 Judge Ahmed Refaat rules that El Adly’s case is combined with the Mubarak case. The court hears testimony from 13 witnesses. December 28 and January 2, 2012 Joint trial resumes and additional witnesses, including the heads of security in different districts, are heard.January 3 through February 16, 2012 Closing arguments are heard from prosecution and defence. February 22, 2012 Mr Refaat officially closes the trial and announces that a verdict would be issued on June 2. The officials at Torah prison, where the 84-year-old Mubarak is serving a life sentence, said he ate yoghurt and drank juice, apparently brought in by visitors. He was being given liquids and vitamins intravenously. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media. Mubarak's two sons, detained in Torah while awaiting trial on charges of insider trading, were by his side in the intensive care unit of the prison's hospital. Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison on June 2 for failing to prevent the killing of protesters during the uprising that toppled his regime 16 months ago. His lawyer, Farid El Deeb, said on Monday that Mubarak did not trust his doctors and feared they were out to kill him. Since his arrival at the prison directly after his sentencing, Mubarak has been suffering from high blood pressure and breathing difficulties and deep depression, according to prison officials. On Monday, doctors used a defibrillator on him twice after they could not find his pulse. His 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 send Mubarak to prison, his doctors had said his condition does not permit it. Since he was detained in April 2011, Mubarak had spent time in a luxury suite of a hospital in his favorite Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh. He was later transferred to a military hospital on the outskirts of Cairo after his trial began in August, where he was regularly visited by family, and where he was said to have exercised and appeared in pictures on his feet, unlike his appearances in court on a stretcher. After he was sentenced, Mubarak refused to leave the helicopter that transferred him to the prison for hours.