A medical committee has visited Tora prison hospital previously and determined that the hospital was not fit to receive non-urgent cases, let alone ex-President Hosni Mubarak, state-run news agency MENA quoted the interior minister saying Monday.
Mohamed Ibrahim was referring to a report issued in May by a medical committee set up by the attorney general. The report said the hospital was not properly equipped to take Mubarak.
The Interior Ministry recently declared Mubarak would soon be transferred to Tora prison hospital. A parliamentary committee on Sunday said the hospital could receive Mubarak within a week.
On 5 February, the ministry said it was preparing to transfer Mubarak to Tora following the breakout of protests in Cairo and Suez in the aftermath of violence at a football match in Port Said that left 74 people dead.
In its report to Parliament on Sunday, the health committee accused former Interior Minister Mansour al-Essawy of dragging his feet on implementing recommendations in a medical examiner report issued on 23 April that said the hospital could receive critical cases within a month.
Ibrahim also told MENA his opinion about police officers who want to grow their beards.
The minister said having a beard is only a non-binding religious tradition and that the ministry will be firm with officers who violate police regulations.
Ibrahim said his tour in Upper Egypt was to raise the morale police officers there and to observe the security situation firsthand. He met with 200 police officers from the Assiut, Sohag and New Valley security departments in recent days.
