Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak was transferred back to prison from an army hospital on Thursday after he appeared fitter after his aborted retrial on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ousted him.
Mubarak’s transfer from the hospital was delayed because hundreds of supporters had blocked the road in front of
the hospital late on Wednesday in protest against Mubarak’s return to jail, the MENA state news agency said.
The retrial of Mubarak will start again on May 11, a Cairo appeals court said on Wednesday.
A first attempt to hold the retrial collapsed on Saturday when the presiding judge withdrew from the case and referred it
to another court.
Mustafa Hassan Abdullah had been widely criticised for acquitting security men accused of attacking protesters in an incident in which crowds were attacked by men riding camels.
Many Egyptians were angered when the 84-year-old Mubarak, who had been seriously ill last year, appeared in good health, smiling and waving to the public in court on Saturday, prompting calls for him to be put back in jail.
The prosecutor general’s office said it had decided that Mubarak would be returned to Torah prison on the outskirts
of Cairo.
Mubarak was transferred by car from the Maadi Military Hospital to the prison in a heavily guarded police convoy early
on Thursday, MENA reported