Egypt’s Mubarak released from prison

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was released from Cairo’s Tora prison on Thursday and flown by helicopter to a military hospital where he will remain under house arrest pending a new trial, according to wire reports.

{mosads}Mubarak’s release, two years after he was ousted by the military, further complicates the already volatile situation in Egypt, where the army last month removed his democratically elected successor, Mohamed Morsi. The 85-year-old Mubarak is believed to suffer from a heart condition. 

The Egyptian prosecutor’s office agreed with a court order that Mubarak should be granted conditional release pending a retrial on charges that he was complicit in the deaths of demonstrators protesting his rule in February 2011. 

He was sentenced to life in prison but a court earlier this year accepted his appeal and ordered a retrial.

President Obama’s call for Mubarak to leave office in 2011 after three decades of authoritarian rule helped pave the way for democratic elections that swept Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood to power.  

The Obama administration has declined to comment on his release, with the State Department calling it an “internal matter.”

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