No proof to back Mubarak's cancer claim

There is no "scientific" proof to back claims by Hosni Mubarak's lawyer that the ousted president has cancer, an Egyptian health ministry official said in statements published on Sunday. Mubarak, who is in custody at a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, has "a stomach cancer and the tumours are growing," his lawyer Farid al-Dib told AFP on Monday. "The health ministry does not have a single scientific document saying that Mubarak has cancer," Abdelhamid Abaza, an assistant to the health minister, was quoted as saying by Al-Ahram and Al-Masry Al-Youm newspapers. "There is no information about the surgery which the former president undertook in Germany," he added. In March 2010, Mubarak went to Germany for surgery. Doctors at the time said he had suffered from chronic calculus cholecystitis -- an inflammation of the gall bladder accompanied by gall stones -- and a duodenal polyp. Mubarak also had a growth removed from his small intestine. "He should have had a medical follow-up after that but it was not done," Mubarak's lawyer said on Monday. A German medical team, including the surgeon who operated on Mubarak last year, was expected in Sharm el-Sheikh later on Sunday to examine him and see if he is indeed suffering from cancer, Al-Masry al-Youm said. The former president has been held in custody in a Sharm hospital since suffering heart problems during questioning on April 13, almost a month after 18 days of popular protests forced him to quit. Mubarak, who turned 83 in May, and his sons Alaa and Gamal are set to go on trial on August 3 on charges of ordering the killing of protesters during the uprising in January and February that toppled the veteran leader.