Egypt\'s Hosni Mubarak to leave jail for house arrest

Security forces stand guard outside Tora prison where Hosni Mubarak is detained Egyptians await the possible release of ex-president Hosni Mubarak on Thursday, after a court ordered he be freed pending his re-trial on charges of complicity in the deaths of protesters, and other crimes. It was not clear if and when the 85-year-old Mubarak might leave jail, but the country\'s interim prime minister has already ordered that he be placed under house arrest.
Political sources told Arab Today that Mubarak would be transferred to one of the guest houses owned by the armed forces. They added that the ex-president does not have an apartment in Egypt, apart from a flat being rented by Heliopolis where his wife Susan ?Mubarak lives.?
Authorities fear retaliatory attacks on the former head of state by some of January 25 revolution youth who are against his release from prison.
Egypt\'s revolutionary movements have demanded a retrial and are planning a demonstration outside the Supreme Court in central Cairo on Friday.
In a statement, the Revolutionary Socialist Organisation called on authorities to establish new revolutionary courts to try senior figures from the Mubarak regime.
\"We urge the state to establish new ?revolutionary courts to try Mubarak and the icons of his regime. The whole issue is ?political, not legal. The revenge for the martyrs of the revolution cannot take place without new ?revolutionary courts,\" the group said.
On Wednesday, a court ordered that Mubarak be freed while he stands trial for corruption and in connection with the deaths of some of the 850 people killed in the popular uprising that ousted him in 2011.
The decision to free Mubarak added a volatile new element to the political turmoil that has gripped Egypt since his successor, Islamist Mohammed Morsi, was ousted in a July 3 coup, with 1,000 people killed in violence in the past week.
Last year, Mubarak was convicted on the complicity and corruption charges and sentenced to life in prison.
He appealed, and a retrial was ordered.
Even if he is released, he still faces those charges, and his next hearing is scheduled for Sunday.
Under interim prime minister Hazem al-Beblawi\'s order, Mubarak would be confined to his home, possibly a residence in Cairo or in the Rea Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
\"In the framework of the emergency law, the deputy military ruler ordered Mubarak to be placed under house arrest,\" a cabinet statement said.
Meanwhile, authorities continue to round up members of Morsi\'s Muslim Brotherhood movement. Overnight, they detained Islamist firebrand Safwat Hegazy and Mourad Ali, a spokesman for the group\'s Freedom and Justice Party.
Since the army ousted Morsi after massive demonstrations against him, authorities have issued hundreds of detention orders and arrest warrants for Brotherhood members.  
Dozens of the group\'s leaders have been rounded up, including its Supreme Guide, Mohamed Badie, who was detained on Tuesday. It was the first time a Brotherhood Supreme Guide has been arrested since 1981.
The movement swiftly named deputy, Mahmoud Ezzat, to serve as interim guide.
Badie and two other senior Brotherhood leaders are expected to appear Sunday before a court on allegations they incited the murder of protesters in front of their headquarters on June 30.
Egypt has experienced a week of unprecedented political bloodletting, which began on August 14 when security forces stormed two Cairo pro-Morsi protest camps.  The crackdown and resulting violence across the country killed nearly 600 people in a single day, the bloodiest in Egypt\'s recent history.
Islamists have torched and attacked dozens of Christian churches, schools, businesses and homes - mostly in the rural south, accusing Egypt\'s sizeable Coptic minority of backing Morsi\'s ouster.
The deadly dispersal of the protest camps were followed by days of violence that have seen the country\'s toll rise to nearly 1000 dead, including 37 Islamist prisoners who died in custody on Sunday night.  That excludes the toll in the Sinai Peninsula where militants have launched near daily attacks against police and army facilities.
On Monday 25 policemen were killed in a single incident, when gunmen dragged them from two buses and shot them dead execution style near the border with the Gaza Strip.  The incident prompted national condemnation and mourning and brought the week\'s toll in Sinai alone to 45, according to an AFP count.
The international community has been shocked by the violence.
The European Union decided Wednesday to restrict exports of security equipment and arms to Egypt in response to the mounting violence but opted to maintain economic assistance.
After a meeting in Brussels, the EU Foreign Ministry issued a statement that dubbed recent operations by Egyptian security forces as \"disproportionate\" while also condemning \"acts of terrorism\" in the Sinai and attacks on churches blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood.
But expressing concern over the economic situation, the ministers said \"assistance in the socio-economic sector and to civil society will continue.\"
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said: \"We must keep faith with the majority of the people of Egypt who want a stable, democratic and prosperous country for themselves and that means we mustn\'t do anything that hurts them or that cuts off support to them.\"
For its part, the White House denied reports it was halting its $1.3 billion annual defence aid package to Egypt.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, which backs the army-installed interim government, has said it would step in with other Arab nations to fill any funding gap if Washington halts aid.
Source: AFP