Mubarak to be sent back to prison hospital

CAIRO - Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak will be moved back to Tora Prison Hospital on Wednesday night, state-run Ahram Online reported.

"Preparations are made to move Mubarak from Maadi Military Hospital back to the prison hospital," Ahram quoted a security source as saying.

Earlier on Wednesday, Prosecutor-General Talaat Ibrahim Abdullah decided to discharge Mubarak from the better-equipped Maadi Military Hospital and send him back to the prison hospital.

Some 300 supporters of Mubarak have started a sit-in outside the military hospital in rejection of the transfer, and dozens of them attempted to storm into the hospital to prevent the return, an eyewitness told Xinhua. One of the supporters tried to set himself ablaze, but was stopped by the security forces.

On Saturday, Egypt's prosecution general demanded a report on Mubarak's health to determine whether to return him to the prison hospital after the first session of his retrial, during which the 84-year-old appeared in a better health condition compared to previous trials.

Mubarak had been serving life imprisonment for involvement in killing protesters in the unrest in January 2011 until Cairo Court of Appeals decided on March 3 to retry him, his two sons, his interior minister and six of his security aides.

He was transferred to Maadi Military Hospital late last year after he was wounded in his head and broke three ribs after falling down in a bathroom at the prison hospital.