Mubarak Is on Life Support, Egypt Security Officials Say CAIRO - Former President Hosni Mubarak, who led Egypt for three decades until he was toppled last year in a popular uprising, was on life support at a military hospital late Tuesday after he was declared "clinically dead" by doctors, according to Egyptian officials and state news media. After suffering a stroke in prison on Tuesday, Mr. Mubarak, 84, was moved to a military hospital overlooking the Nile in Cairo. Doctors said they were unable to revive him after he went into cardiac arrest, state news media said. News of Mr. Mubarak's failing health quickly spread through crowds of demonstrators in Tahrir Square, adding a new element of volatility to the growing political and constitutional crisis in the country he once ruled. The reports came as elements of the government that Mr. Mubarak had led tried to re-establish their power and as hundreds of thousands of people were protesting in the streets, trying to salvage the spirit of their revolt. Mr. Mubarak was last seen in public 15 days ago when he was given a life sentence for collaborating in the murder of hundreds of demonstrators during the protests that ended his iron-fisted rule. His health deteriorated rapidly when he was flown by helicopter from the courthouse to a hospital ward in a notorious prison where many political prisoners were held during his rule. Mr. Mubarak's sentence was met by several days of angry demonstrations by tens of thousands in Cairo and around Egypt who said it was not harsh enough. The judge had pronounced him responsible for a "dark, dark, dark" era of crimes and said he was broadly responsible for the murders. But the judge also said prosecutors had shown no evidence linking Mr. Mubarak to the killings, all but paving the way for a legal appeal that might have led to his release. His questionable conviction, and earlier reports that Mr. Mubarak might be released from the hospital because of his health, became a major issue in the runoff to succeed him - Egypt's first competitive presidential election. It was a contest that already presented what many saw as a stark choice between a return to Mr. Mubarak's authoritarian and nominally secular state and an experiment in government by the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood, who had spent decades opposing him. Mohamed Morsi, the Brotherhood's presidential candidate, sought to rally support by warning of a potential pardon if the election went to his opponent, Ahmed Shafik, a former general who once served under Mr. Mubarak in the air force and was his last prime minister. Mr. Morsi vowed to push new, broader investigations, possibly outside the Mubarak-dominated court system, in order to hold the former president accountable. The verdict on the Mubarak era that was delivered by last weekend's presidential vote was a narrowly split decision. According to a public count of the ballots, confirmed by the official media, Mr. Morsi won with 52 percent of the vote, with turnout just over 50 percent of the roughly 50 million eligible voters. Forty-eight percent voted for Mr. Shafik. It was unclear what effect the news of Mr. Mubarak's condition might have on the political standoff that has followed the election. The day before voting began, the generals who have ruled Egypt since Mr. Mubarak left power seized on a rushed decision by a court of Mubarak-appointed judges to shut down the Brotherhood-led Parliament. They have proceeded to issue their own interim constitution that entrenches their power while all but eviscerating the authority of the new president. The interim charter also provides them and the Mubarak-appointed judiciary broad sway over the drafting of Egypt's next permanent constitution. The moves were denounced across the political spectrum here as a military coup, if not a counterrevolution. They also appeared to be an attempt to protect the essential character of the military-backed autocracy that Mr. Mubarak once led from the threat of a sweeping makeover by the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood. As Mr. Mubarak lay in a hospital on Tuesday night, tens of thousands of demonstrators filled central Cairo - the biggest stage for the revolution that removed Mr. Mubarak - to demand that the generals back down. The Brotherhood bused thousands of supporters and vowed to push a three-pronged campaign of street protests, legal battles and political negotiations until their control of Parliament and the presidency was restored.