Egypt’s Mubarak ‘under house arrest’

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was rumoured to have fled to Saudi Arabia [Reuters]

Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s ousted president, has been put under house arrest along with his family, according to an Egyptian military statement.

Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on Monday said that the former leader and his family would not be allowed to leave the country and denied reports that Mubarak had fled to Saudi Arabia.

“There is no truth to reports that former president Hosni Mubarak has left Egypt for Tabuk in Saudi Arabia,” the council said in a statement on the social networking site Facebook.

“He is under house arrest, with his family, in Egypt.”

The military council took power on February 11 after Mubarak was pushed from office following 18 days of massive street protests against his 30-year rule.

Egypt’s prosecutor general on March 3 denied media reports that Mubarak was in Saudi Arabia, insisting that he was at his family home in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Media reports suggested that Mubarak had gone to Tabuk to receive medical treatment, with the state-owned daily Al-Akhbar claiming Mubarak was receiving medical treatment for cancer.

Egypt is due to hold parliamentary elections in September, although no exact date has yet been given for a presidential vote.

The country’s emergency laws, in place since 1981, are to be lifted ahead of the parliamentary vote, the military council has said.

The laws give police near-unlimited powers of arrest and allowed indefinite detentions without charges.