Egypt’s prosecutor orders Mubarak to return to prison after his health improves

Egypt’s prosecutor general on Monday ordered convicted former president Hosni Mubarak to return to prison, nearly a month after he was moved to a military hospital in Cairo after reportedly suffering a stroke.

Abdel Meguid Mahmud “has issued an order to transfer former president Hosni Mubarak from the Maadi Armed Forces Hospital to Tora prison hospital after [a reported] improvement in his health,” his office said in a statement.

“He [Mubarak] is in the ambulance and is on his way to Tora prison,” a security official told AFP.

On July 4, Mahmud had ordered the formation of a committee of medical experts to look into the 84-year-old former president’s health and determine whether he could be moved back to prison, said deputy prosecutor general Adel al-Saeed.

The doctors agreed that “Mubarak’s health is currently stable with medication, and it is considered good for someone of his age,” Saeed said.

The committee found “no reason for the convict to currently remain in the Armed Forces Hospital in Maadi or any other hospital” with special facilities, he said.

Mubarak’s health was clouded in uncertainty following his move to hospital on June 19, with state media declaring him clinically dead on arrival at a military hospital.

The ousted president was sentenced on June 2 to life in prison over the killing of protesters in the uprising against his rule.

Late last month, Egypt’s state news agency reported Mubarak as “clinically dead” after he was moved from prison to the hospital. The interior ministry spokesman at the time said that Mubarak suffered a stroke and his condition rapidly worsened.

Since Mubarak’s arrival at the prison directly after his sentencing, he suffered from high blood pressure and breathing difficulties and deep depression, prison officials said.