Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is to be put under house arrest following a court order to release him in a corruption case, officials say, according to BBC News.

The prime minister's office said the measure would be taken "in the context of the emergency law" currently in place across the country.

Mubarak, 85, is expected to be released from prison later on Thursday, August 22. He still faces charges of complicity in the killing of protesters during the uprising that ousted him in 2011.

He was sentenced to life in jail last year, but a retrial was later ordered after his appeal was upheld.

That retrial opened in May but Mubarak has now served the maximum amount of pre-trial detention permitted in the case.