According to the press office of the Egyptian Government Former President Hosni Mubarak, 84, is only confirmed to not be dead and that he is in a coma. One of Mubarak’s attorneys, Fareed El Deeb, told CNN, “he has been in a coma for hours now. He has had water on the lungs for 10 days now and his blood pressure is down today, which obstructed his breathing and forced doctors to put him on a respirator. He was given medicine intravenously to relieve the brain clot, and electric shocks were used to revive him but there was no substantial response. He is not dead as reported.”

Mubarak has been reportedly transported from the prison where he is being held to Maadi military hospital where he is on life support and clinically dead. Mubarak was jailed for life for his role in the killings of hundreds of protesters in February 2011.

CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen commented that “clinically dead is not a phrase that is commonly used, but when it is used, what it usually means is that someone is brain dead…in the United States, we would call this person dead because they have no brain activity.”

However, many are doubtful of these allegations. A senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Fouad Ajami, stated, “there’s a great Arab expression I like and it asks the following question: When you’re told that someone is dead, you say, ‘Is he dead and buried, or just dead?’ I think we are in the middle of this kind of situation.”

With tensions high in Egypt with the outcome of the presidential elections being announced today, some believe that this is a stunt by the government to distract from the problems with the elections. Sayed Ahmed, a protester, stated, “I don’t care about Mubarak. These are games played by the intelligence services.”

Recently many protesters have gathered in Tahrir Square to protest the way the elections are being run and recent problems in the government. The government is currently being run by the Egyptian military which ousted the recently elected Parliament after the Constitutional Court ruled that the elections were illegal. According to a statement issued by former US President Jimmy Carter’s Carter Center, they are “deeply troubled by the undemocratic turn that Egypt has taken.”

The Constitutional Court also ruled that candidate Ahmed Shafiq, former prime minister under Mubarak, could run and contest the elections even though a law was passed forbidding members of the former regime from running for office. According to “The Australian” the protesters of Arab Spring feel as though they are being marginalized.

Another lawyer of Mubarak’s claimed Wednesday, June 20 that the stories of Mubarak’s coma are exaggerated. Youssri Abdel Razeq says that Mubarak fell in the prison shower and developed a blood clot that has been removed. According to the “New York Times” Mubarak’s lawyers are trying to get him released from prison on medical grounds.

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Moscow, Russia – Two Arab Spring revolutionaries, Nabeel Rajab and Alaa Abd al-Fattah explain why the reform movements stalled in Bahrain and have destabilized in Egypt on the May 8th episode of “The World Tomorrow” on RT.

Nabeel Rajab is the leading human rights activist from Bahrain and the founder of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights; right prior to the air of his interview to Julian Assange he was arrested by the Bahraini government forces and will now stand trial for inciting the acts of protests.

Alaa Abd al-Fattah is the Egyptian writer and political activist who was a prominent figure in the Egyptian revolution. The two guests discuss the impetus behind the uprisings in the Middle East, what has been achieved and the prospects for democracy and reform in these countries.

“I speak to two leading revolutionaries: one from Bahrain, where the revolution failed; one from Egypt, where the revolution is now in turmoil. What makes a revolution? And where is the Arab Spring going to go?” – commented Assange on the upcoming episode.

In the interview given prior to his arrest Rajab commented on the struggle of the protest movement inBahrain on the show: “This is freedom. This is democracy that we are fighting for. It has a cost and we have to pay this cost, and the cost might be very expensive – as we have paid high cost in Bahrain. And, we are willing to pay that for the changes that we are fighting for.”

The fourth episode of Julian Assange’s program will air globally on Tuesday, May 8th at 15:30 Moscowtime /11:30 GMT/7:30 EDT across all RT channels in English, Arabic and Spanish, and will be rebroadcast every two hours thereafter.

The progress of the Arab Spring movements across different countries is a topic that Julian Assange has explored continuously starting with the very first episode of “The World Tomorrow.” Interview with the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah caused a global media firestorm and trended on Twitter throughout the day. The most recent episode featured an extended discussion with Moncef Marzouki, the interim President of Tunisia, on democratic reforms in the cradle of the Arab Spring.

“The World Tomorrow” is RT’s weekly interview program created and hosted by the WikiLeaks founder. Promotional materials, an exclusive interview with Assange and the full-length video of the aired episodes are available at http://assange.rt.com.

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With 2011 coming to an end, Egypt is now left with the remains of a revolution that delivered mixed results. Like several Middle Eastern countries, Egypt has been through a lot, with the loss of many innocent lives and the lack of a stable government.

According to Egypt’s Ministry of Health, the death toll from the Qasr al-Aini street clashes between protesters and the military on December 22 left, at least, 17 dead. Reports emerged stating that family members of those killed were forced by the military and police to sign death certificates that falsified the true cause of death at the Zeinhom morgue in Cairo. Women protesters were also beaten and harassed by Cairo police recently.

“Tantawi stripped your women naked. Come join us!” the crowd chanted to passers-by, referring to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the military council. “The daughters of Egypt are a red line,” they chanted.

In response, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued the following statement: “We express a strong regret to the great women of Egypt over transgressions that occurred during recent incidents in the protests outside the parliament and cabinet.”

Ever since January 25, the only constant has been the rising number of deaths. Protesters are filled with anger and grief that vengeance holds a free rein in the name of liberty, in such a way that may lead the best of men to misinterpret and misapply the fairest of laws that may eventually threaten the acquisition of liberty.

Protester Islam Mohammed, 22, said a friend, Shehab Abdullah, died from a live bullet fired by police.“I will avenge his death. We all will,” he said. “We are defending Tahrir square. If we sleep, police will attack us.”

However, Egyptian heroes did not die in vain. The first phase of elections for the People’s Assembly and Shura Council was launched on November 28 and will end on March 11 of next year. Egyptian people hope that this progress will end the transitional period and act as a stepping stone towards democracy. For the first time in Egypt’s history, citizens living abroad are given the right to vote through embassies and consulates. Egyptians hope that the election results will actually reflect the will of the people.

Nonetheless, the country still faces many questions. Will the elected Parliament take control of the transitional government? Will the drafting of the new constitution be conducted by the elected parliament or ruling military council? Will Egypt’s falling economy rise again?

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Since the beginning of the year, most of the Islamic world has been in uproar over the demand for recognition of people’s rights and an end to the autocratic regimes set up in the vast majority of these countries. While some revolutions have been successful — for instance, the example of Egypt and most recently the fall of Libya’s Gadaffi — others have not been able to enjoy the liberties brought by the Arab Spring revolutions.

Bahrain has often been regarded as a modern and reasonable country, even though recent reports claim riot police targeted Shiite Muslim protesters and caused the death of a 14-year-old boy.

The demands of the Bahrainis for a more democratic and equalitarian state were never met and protesters were soon detained. Shiites account for more than 70% of the population but are ruled by a Sunni minority, being treated as second-class citizens and often ostracized. Most of the activists in this battle have turned to social media websites to fight for their freedom.

Youtube and other video-sharing websites are also being used as a means to raise awareness concerning the anti-government movement and their human rights rallies. Facebook has proved to be one of the strongest weapons against the establishment. It is being used by protesters as an information outlet to the rest of the world, as well as a means to gather activists.

The page TrueRoyalDemocracy devotes itself to help organize pro-democracy demonstrations and expose police brutality. However, police and government officials have also resorted to social media in order to track down and identify protesters, having arrested and tortured them in the past.

According to Nancy Messieh, Middle East editor at The Next Web, demonstrators are aware of the danger and risks of posting anti-government messages online, but continue to do so in the hopes of eventually reaching their goal: “Even if you look at the extent that people will go to, away from social media, like what we are seeing in Syria at the moment, they know the consequences, they know what they’re getting themselves into and they’re still willing to do it, and I think even with social media it is exactly the same thing.

If this is a tool that they can use, they’re going to use it, despite the risks.” Social media platforms were a monumental tool for the change in Egypt, and the same could happen in Bahrain. In light of recent events, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has vowed to investigate recent killings in Bahrain and develop reform, in an attempt to meet the demands Bahrainis have called for.

Could this be a sign of change to come or is it merely a tactic to silence the ever-growing voice of the opposition? We might know soon enough.

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