EGYPT'S former president, Hosni Mubarak, has reportedly suffered a heart attack while being flown to jail after being sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in the killing of protesters during last year's uprising that forced him from power.
Egyptian state media reported the ''health crisis'' occurred as he was being taken by helicopter to Torah prison hospital.
Habib al-Adli, Mubarak's minister of the interior, was alwas also jailed for life but Mubarak's sons Gamal and Alaa were
People at the court in Cairo reacted angrily to the acquittal of Mubarak's sons and a series of Interior Ministry officials and police chiefs.
The crowd chanted, ''False judgment. The people want to clean the judicial system.
'' Fights broke out inside and stones were thrown at riot police outside the court."
Lawyers inside the courtroom were furious over the acquittals and said they feared that Mubarak and Adli would be found innocent on appeal.
Mubarak, 84, is the first Arab leader to be tried by his own people but he can still appeal against his sentence.
Outside, there were celebrations, with many chanting ''God is greatest''.
Soha Saeed, the wife of one of those killed in the uprising that toppled Mubarak on February 11, 2011, shouted: ''I'm so happy. I'm so happy.''
Mubarak arrived at the court building by helicopter and was then wheeled into court on a hospital stretcher, wearing sunglasses and looking frail. Protesters outside the building shouted: ''Enough talk, we want execution.''
''I want nothing less than the death penalty for Mubarak. Anything less and we will not be silent and the revolution will break out again,'' said Hanafi el-Sayed, whose 27-year-old son was killed in the first days of the uprising in January last year.
Judge Ahmed Refaat insisted the 10-month trial had been fair, and said Egyptian people had suffered 30 years of darkness under Mubarak's rule.
Mubarak had faced a possible death sentence over the killing of about 850 protesters by security forces last year.
Despite their acquittal, Alaa and Gamal Mubarak are to remain in detention. On Wednesday, prosecutors said they would go on trial with seven others on charges of stockmarket manipulation.
The trial itself has often been chaotic. Outside the court, Mubarak's supporters and his opponents have often clashed.
''Day of the verdict for the pharaoh,'' wrote the al-Watan newspaper in a front-page headline, a reference to Mubarak who was often called a modern version of Egypt's ancient rulers.
Hundreds of police with riot shields and batons surrounded the police academy where the trial has been held.
Few Egyptians expected Mubarak would go to the gallows, even if some think that is what he deserves. Protesters have often hung his effigy from lampposts since he was ousted.
But the ruling could not come at a more sensitive time for Egypt, right in the middle of a fraught presidential election that pits a figure from the Muslim Brotherhood, banned under Mubarak, against the deposed leader's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq.
On Friday, protesters returned to Tahrir Square in Cairo, the focal point of the demonstrations last year, to show their opposition to Shafiq.
Egyptians saw Mubarak as they had never seen him before when his trial opened on August 3, about six months after he was ousted. He was wheeled into the court on a hospital trolley as on each of his court appearances since.
He has rarely spoken except to declare his presence and deny the charges, including accusations that he was behind brutal police tactics used to quell mass protests against his rule.
culled from Sydney Morning herald.
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