Mubarak to move to prison hospital, says top lawmaker

Cairo: Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak will be moved to a hospital inside a prison on the outskirts of Cairo, the Speaker of Parliament Saad Al Katatni said on Monday.

"The Interior Ministry has responded to a proposal made by the People's Assembly (the lower house of parliament) to move Mubarak to the hospital of the Torah Prison," Al Katatni added.

"The ministry is now implementing the proposal." Mubarak, 83, has been staying in an army medical centre near Cairo since August 3 when his trial began.

He is charged with ordering the killing of hundreds of protesters during a revolt that eventually toppled him, and corruption.

A parliamentary committee on Monday visited the high-security Torah Prison to inspect the hospital to which Mubarak will be taken, reported state television.

Lawmaker Amr Hamzawi told privately owned station ON TV late on Sunday that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has approved Mubarak's move to the prison hospital. The decision was apparently made under public pressure.

Egyptians, incensed by the deaths of 74 people in a football-related violence, have demanded Mubarak's trial to be expedited and he leave the luxury army medical centre.

Interior Minister Mohammad Ebrahim late on Sunday ordered prominent figures in Mubarak's regime, including his two sons, be sent to different prisons across Egypt.

They have been kept in the Torah Prison since they were detained following Mubarak's ouster. More than 40 former officials, including the ex-chiefs of the parliament's two houses and former ministers of the interior, oil, housing, tourism and information, are being jailed in Torah.

Many protest groups blame the former regime for inciting a series of deadly incidents in Egypt since Mubarak was deposed last February.