Update: Mubarak arrives at Maadi Military Hospital

Mubarak has arrived at the Maadi Military Hospital after being released from Tora Prison, as per his request, the privately owned paper Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

General Prosecutor Hesham Barakat ordered the release of ousted President Hosni Mubarak earlier on Thursday, Al-Ahram reported, citing a judicial source who said procedures were underway for his release from prison.

A security source confirmed that a military helicopter arrived at the prison with security personnel and a medical team to move the former president to house arrest, the paper said.

On Wednesday, a North Cairo misdemeanor appeals court accepted a petition for Mubarak’s release in a corruption case in which he stands accused of illegally receiving gifts worth millions of pounds annually from the Al-Ahram state media institution, state news agency MENA reported.

He is also being retried on charges of ordering the killing of protesters during the 18-day popular uprising in 2011 that led to his removal by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Since he has served the maximum amount of pre-trial detention permitted in this case, he can wait the retrial proceedings out of prison.

EIPR lawyer Hoda Nasrallah stated on Wednesday that the former president would indeed be released. “After the petition against pretrial detention for the press gifts case was accepted, Mubarak can no longer be held in custody in connection with any of the four cases pending against him,” she said.

Mubarak will remain under house arrest as per a decision by Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi in his capacity of deputy military commander under the rules of the Emergency Law currently in place.

A report by Al-Arabiya said Mubarak is expected to reside in an old rented apartment in Heliopolis near the Maryland Garden, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

The report said that the apartment at 4 Hegaz Street is the only piece of real estate left registered under the name of the ousted president. In 1958, Mubarak rented the second floor apartment to spend his honeymoon in after marrying Suzanne Thabet. His sons Alaa and Gamal were born in the same apartment, the privately-owned newspaper added.

Mubarak used the apartment as the official address for all his correspondence and legal documents. In 1972, and after Mubarak became vice president to Anwar Sadat, he moved out but continued paying the rent of the five-room apartment.

Eyewitnesses stated that Thabet visited the apartment several times last year while workers renovated and refurnished it. The report added that the rent is LE15 (US$3) per month, less than the cost of a chicken.

Al-Arabiya speculated that the apartment will not be a suitable residence for the ousted president, and “will make him long for his prison cell.”

The North Cairo court gave the prosecution 48 hours to appeal the order, but a judicial source at the general prosecutor’s office told Mada Masr that they may decide not to appeal.

Last year, he was sentenced to life in prison for failing to prevent the killing of more than 800 protesters, and later a court accepted his appeal for retrial. He was being held at the Tora Prison hospital due to a medical condition.

The next hearing in the case regarding the killing of protesters is set for August 25.