Tora prison ready to receive Mubarak: health committee

The health committee in Egypt’s People’s Assembly said on Sunday that Tora prison was ready to receive ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

The committee issued its statement after it had inspected the prison to verify if it was ready to receive Mubarak, who is reportedly suffering from tumors in the gall bladder and pancreas.

Egypt’s interior minister ordered in January the transfer of Mubarak to Cairo’s Tora prison hospital and asked that other detained former regime figures be divided and put in five different prisons in a bid to limit contact between them.

There have been claims by various revolution groups that former regime figures were behind the wave of unrest that has rocked the country in past several months.

Mubarak has been held in a military hospital pending his trial and his transfer to Tora prison would be a concession to protesters who have complained that Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for 30 years, has been given special treatment by the military council, which took over when he was pushed out in February last year.

The move by interior minister came following clashes between protesters and riot police in Cairo.