CAIRO — Ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak returned to prison Monday after weeks in a top-line military hospital, a security official said. A prosecutor said that the 84-year old ex-president's health had improved from several weeks ago, when he was reportedly on the brink of death. However, others in Egypt see the move as an attempt to allay skepticism that officials sympathetic to Mubarak were exaggerating his health crisis so as to give the ex-president a more comfortable imprisonment. Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison on June 2 for failing to stop the killing of hundreds of protesters during last year's uprising against his regime. Days after he started serving his sentence incarcerated in the hospital of Cairo's Torah Prison, officials said that his health deteriorated, he began slipping in and out of consciousness and his heart stopped several times. On June 20, Mubarak was moved to one of the country's well-funded military-run hospitals located in Cairo's suburb of Maadi, the same facility where his predecessor, Anwar Sadat, was declared dead more than 30 years ago after being assassinated by militants. But early Monday, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency said that Prosecutor General Abdel Maguid Mahmoud ordered that Mubarak be moved from back to Torah Prison, where his sons and several of his ministers are held over various corruption charges filed since the uprising. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, arriving in occupied Jerusalem from Egypt, told a wary Israel to treat the Arab Spring as an opportunity as well as a source of uncertainty convulsing the Middle East. Clinton became the most senior US official to meet newly elected President Mohamed Morsi, from the long-banned Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi told her Egypt would abide by its treaties. “It is a time of uncertainty but also of opportunity. It is a chance to advance our shared goal of security, stability, peace and democracy along with prosperity for the millions of people in this region who have yet to see a better future,” Clinton said after meeting Peres. “It is in moments like these that friends like us have to think together, act together. We are called to be smart, creative and courageous,” she told Peres. – Agencies
