Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the man whose totalitarian rule inspired the Arab Spring revolution that led to his ouster, was released from prison and flown directly to a military hospital in Cairo on Thursday, according to the Washington Post.
Supporters of the 85-year-old Mubarak rallied outside of the prison where he had spent the last two years. Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi decided to release Mubarak under the emergency measures that have been implemented since the removal of Mubarak's successor Mohammed Morsi, according to the Associated Press.
Mubarak was carted out of prison on a gurney dressed in a white shirt, khakis, sunglasses and white loafers. The former leader was surrounded by security and smiling with his hands behind his head. Mubarak is not completely free, he is being placed under house arrest at the hospital, according to the Associated Press.
For decades Mubarak's regime used the military to enforce tight control over the people of Egypt and battled with the Muslim Brotherhood, a situation that isn't all that different has spread throughout the country in the last seven weeks.
The military attempted to remove sit-ins performed by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo last week resulting in over 1,000 civilians being killed. It is thought that the release of Mubarak will only further enrage the already seething Muslim Brotherhood, according to the Washington Post.
Egyptians who had participated in the revolution to remove Mubarak were dismayed by his release.
"It's the end of the 25th of January revolution," Walid Ibrahim, a bookstore owner in Cairo, told the Washington Post. "Because the 25th of January revolution was against the Mubarak regime. The problem with the 25th of January is that it didn't topple the regime, just the head of it."
"It'll cancel everything we did for the past year, the past two years," an Egyptian man in Cairo told ABC News. "It'll cancel everything we've been through - all the killing, all the bloodshed - it's devastating. I'm expecting a second revolution for that."
Some Egyptians, while they may not necessarily support Mubarak, long for the stability Egypt enjoyed under his rule after the anarchy of recent weeks.
"Under Mubarak, we had security," Mohammed al-Laban, a chauffeur, told the Washington Post. "We felt secure about our wives, our children walking on the street. Not anymore."
