Egypt's public prosecutor has ordered that the country's former president, Hosni Mubarak, be moved back to prison, saying an improvement in his health meant he no longer needed to stay in a military hospital.

Mubarak, pictured, was sentenced to life in prison over the killing of protesters in the uprising that ended his rule last year. In June he was moved from the medical wing of Tora prison to a military hospital following reports of a deterioration in his health. At the time, senior officers and military sources gave various accounts of the 84-year-old's condition, including that he was in a coma and on life support.

At one point the state news agency Mena reported that he was "clinically dead". Mena was accused by critics of participating in a cover-up to move the former president out of prison.

Adel al-Saeed, an assistant prosecutor and spokesman for the prosecutor's office, said yesterday that a medical committee formed to review Mubarak's condition had decided his health was stable enough that he did not need advanced hospital care.