Egyptian soldiers and medics escort former President Hosni Mubarak after he arrives at a military hospital in the Cairo suburb of Maadi on Thursday. Reuters

In a move seen as symbolic across Egypt's political spectrum, former President Hosni Mubarak has been released from prison and flown to a hospital in Cairo. He was transferred at his own request to Maadi hospital, where he had been treated during his two-year detention.

The interim prime minister's office had previously indicated Mubarak would be placed under house arrest, following a court ruling stating he could be released from prison pending further investigation into corruption charges against him. The former president, ousted during a 2011 uprising, has been told he can prepare for future court appearances from home.

Mubarak's release was not appealed even though prosecutors had 48 hours to challenge it. An appeal could have kept the former president in prison for up to 30 days more.

The former strongman's release was greeted by many supporters and opponents as a sign that the old order is reasserting itself, just weeks after democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi was toppled in a military coup. The prison Mubarak departed on Thursday now houses a number of senior Muslim Brotherhood colleagues of Morsi.

Shadi Hamid, director of research at Brookings Doha Center, said Mubarak's release "confirms what everyone already knows -- that Egypt is moving towards a full-blown autocracy." Hamid told Al Jazeera, "It's not just returning to what it was under the Mubarak era but (to) something significantly worse."

Mubarak has already spent more than two years in pretrial detention, the maximum allowed under Egyptian law, and is now eligible for release pending trial.

Hamid added that Egypt's judiciary system is "highly politicized."

"If the army wanted a different kind of outcome, then that would have happened."