Egypt’s former leader Morsi collapses, dies in court
CAIRO — Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi, who was ousted by the military in 2013 after a year in office, collapsed in court while on trial Monday and died, state TV and his family said.
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, a judicial official said. A few minutes afterward, he collapsed in the cage, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
In his comments, Morsi continued to insist he was Egypt’s legitimate president, demanding a special tribunal, one of his defense lawyers, Kamel Madour, said. State TV said Morsi died before he could be taken to the hospital.
Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood accused the government of “assassinating” him through years of poor prison conditions. In a statement, the group demanded an international investigation into Morsi’s death and called on Egyptians to protest outside Egypt’s embassies across the world.
Morsi, who was known to have diabetes, had been imprisoned since his 2013 ouster, often in solitary confinement and barred from visitors. His family was allowed to visit three times during that time. Egypt’s chief prosecutor said Morsi’s body would be examined.
It was a dramatic end for a figure who was central in the twists taken by Egypt since its revolution — from the pro-democracy uprising that in 2011 ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak through controversial Islamist rule and back to a tight grip under the domination of military figures.