Luxury German clinic being considered for Mubarak

LONDON - A German luxury clinic that offers “comfort and service of a top hotel” is being considered for embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who is under intense pressure to quit, a media report said.

The move to Germany is part of an exit strategy being worked out for Mubarak who has ruled Egypt since 1981 and is now facing unprecedented challenge to his rule. Mubarak has said that he is ready to step down at the end of his term in September, but now. The protesters camping at downtown Cairo’s square are unrelenting in their demand - Mubarak must go.

Spiegel Online reported that plans for a possible hospital stay in Germany appear to be more concrete than previously believed and the luxury clinic near Baden-Baden is being considered.

The US is working on a proposal to help the formation of a transition government so as to end the political unrest and Mubarak travelling to Germany for a “prolonged health check” would offer the 82-year-old leader a dignified departure.

Spiegel Online said that a hospital stay in Germany is possible and talks are being held with suitable hospitals, including the Max-Grundig-Klinik Bhlerhhe in the southwestern town of Bhl near Baden-Baden.

The hospital management declined to comment.

The clinic has a respected oncology department and says on its website that it provides “first-class medical care” and the “comfort and service of a top hotel”.

Patients are put up in suites up to 200 square meters in size. Former Ukrainian president Vickor Yushchenko and former Russian economics minister German Gref have been treated there, the media report said.

There have been rumours in the past that Mubarak suffers from cancer.

Mubarak had his gallbladder and an intestinal polyp removed in the Heidelberg University Clinic in 2010.

The Egyptian president is currently staying in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in a holiday villa.

“We need a peaceful transition in Egypt. If Germany can make a constructive contribution in an international framework, we should receive Hosni Mubarak — if he wants that,” Andreas Schockenhoff, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, was quoted as saying.

Elke Hof, security policy spokesperson for the Free Democratic Party, said: “I would welcome an early departure by Mubarak if this can contribute to stabilising the situation in Egypt.”