Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak was flown from prison by helicopter to a military hospital Thursday after he was cleared for conditional release while standing trial, an interior ministry general told AFP.
Mubarak will be held under house arrest at the Cairo hospital on the orders of the prime minister, who has been granted the power to order arrests during the current state of emergency.
Live television footage showed the medical helicopter that took Mubarak from Cairo's Tora prison arrive at a nearby military hospital.
Mubarak, 85, is believed to be suffering from a heart condition.
Earlier on Thursday, Egypt's state prosecutor cleared the ousted leader for conditional release from prison while he stands trial, judicial sources said.
The prosecutor's office informed prison authorities Mubarak could be released after judges ruled he could no longer be imprisoned during his retrial on corruption and murder charges.
Mubarak was convicted last year of corruption and complicity in the murder of protesters during the uprising that forced him to resign in early 2011.
An appeals court ordered a retrial on technicalities.
His lawyer had contested his detention, arguing that the maximum period for pre-verdict detentions had expired, and Mubarak had paid back the money involved in one of the cases.
Last year, Mubarak was convicted on the complicity and corruption charges and sentenced to life in prison.
But a retrial was ordered on the basis of procedural errors in the trial.
His next hearing is on Sunday, although he has not always attended court sessions in the cases against him.
Mubarak's release threatened to add a volatile new element to the political turmoil that has rocked Egypt in recent weeks.
Nearly 1,000 people were killed in a single week between the August 14 dispersal of protests in support of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi and Wednesday.
The ongoing political crisis meant it came as no surprise that the army-installed government would seek to keep Mubarak under house arrest, in a bid to tamp down tensions.
On Wednesday night, the army-installed government said Beblawi, who is serving as deputy military ruler under the state of emergency imposed in Egypt, had ordered house arrest for Mubarak.
"In the framework of the emergency law, the deputy military ruler ordered Mubarak to be placed under house arrest," a cabinet statement said.
