Egypt's former Brotherhood Pres. Morsi dies in court of heart attack
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, collapsed in court during a
trial and died Monday, 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, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was
not authorized to talk to the press.
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. Monday’s session was part of a
retrial, being held inside Cairo’s Tora 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 that the former
president was banned from receiving medicine or visits and there was little
information about his health condition.
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, but
he added that he wasn’t 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 longtime senior figure in Egypt’s most powerful
Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. He was elected in 2012, 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.
The military, led by then-Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi,
ousted Morsi after massive protests against the Brotherhood’s domination of
power. Sisi was subsequently elected president and has waged a massive crackdown
on Islamists and other opponents since.
Since Morsi’s ouster, Egypt’s government has declared the
Brotherhood a terrorist organization and largely crushed it with a heavy
crackdown. Tens of thousands of Egyptians have been arrested since 2013, mainly
Islamists but secular activists who were behind the 2011 uprising.
He has been sentenced to 20 years after being convicted of
ordering Brotherhood members to break up a protest against him, resulting in
deaths. An earlier death sentence was overturned. Multiple cases are still
pending.
Morsi was held in a special wing in the sprawling Tora
detention complex nicknamed Scorpion Prison. Rights groups say its poor
conditions fall far below Egyptian and international standards.