Ex-egyptian president collapses in court and dies during trial
Egypt’s former president Mohammed Morsi – the Muslim Brotherhood leader who rose to office in the country’s first free elections in 2012 and was ousted a year later by the military – has collapsed in court during a trial and died.
The 67-year-old Morsi had just addressed the court, speaking from the glass cage he is kept in during sessions and warning that he had “many secrets” he could reveal, when the incident happened yesterday. A few minutes afterward he collapsed.
State TV said Morsi died before he could be taken to the hospital.
Morsi has been in prison undergoing multiple trials ever since the military ousted him in July 2013 and launched a massive crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists. Yesterday’s session was part of a retrial, being held inside Cairo’s Tura Prison, on charges of espionage with the Palestinian Hamas militant group.
Morsi’s son Ahmed confirmed the death of his father in a Facebook post.
Mohammed Sudan, leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in London, described Morsi’s death as “premeditated murder”, saying the former president was banned from receiving medicine or visits and there was little information about his health condition.
“He has been placed behind a glass cage [during trials],” Mr Sudan said. “No one can hear him or know what is happening to him. He hasn’t received any visits for a months or nearly a year. He complained before that he doesn’t get his medicine. This is premediated murder. This is slow death.”
The judicial official said Morsi had asked to speak to the court during the session. The judge permitted it and Morsi gave a speech saying he had “many secrets” that, if he told them, he would be released. However, Morsi said he was not telling them because it would harm Egypt’s national security.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry did not answer calls seeking comment.
Morsi was a long-time senior figure in Egypt’s most powerful Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. He was elected in 2012 in the country’s first free presidential election, held a year after an Arab Spring uprising ousted Egypt’s longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak. His Muslim Brotherhood also held a majority in parliament.