(VOVworld) - Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will leave a military hospital this week, his lawyer said, after an appeals court acquitted the ex-president of involvement in the killing of protesters during a 2011 uprising.

Supporters of Hosni Mubarak gather in front of Maadi military hospital where he is being detained. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)

Lawyer Farid al-Deeb said on Tuesday that Mr. Mubarak can go home when the doctors decide he is able to, but Mubarak is banned from leaving Egypt pending an ongoing graft investigation. Mubarak - who was president for almost three decades and is now 88 - has been in detention at a military hospital in Cairo since the uprising.

Mubarak was originally sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for conspiring to murder demonstrators during the 18-day revolt in 2011. Around 850 people were killed during conflicts between police and protestors that year. An appeals court ordered a retrial that culminated in 2014 in the case against Mubarak and his senior officials being dropped. An appeal by the public prosecutor led to a final retrial, which acquitted Mubarak on March 2.