Egypt's ousted leader Mubarak ordered released from detention

In this April 25, 2016 file photo, ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak waves to his supporters from his room at the Maadi Military Hospital, where he is hospitalized, as they celebrate Sinai Liberation Day that marks the final withdrawal of all Israeli military forces from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in 1982, in Cairo, Egypt. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

CAIRO – Egypt's official news agency says a Cairo prosecutor has ordered the release from detention of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, ending nearly six years of legal proceedings against the long-ruling autocrat.

It says the prosecutor, Ibrahim Saleh, ordered his release Monday after he accepted a petition by Mubarak's lawyer for his freedom on the basis of time already served.

Mubarak, 88, was acquitted by the country's top appeals court on March 2 of charges that he ordered the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his 29-year rule.

The petition argued that Mubarak's three-year sentence for embezzling state funds has been served while in detention in connection to the protesters' case.

Mubarak has spent virtually all of the past six years in the hospital since his detention in 2011.