By Mercy Imali
Egypt’s former president Mohamed Morsi is dead. Morsi was the first democratically elected president; he was ousted after one year of divisive rule. Morsi died after falling ill during a court hearing on Monday, the attorney general said. He was 67.
An “animated” Morsi, had requested to speak” during a hearing in his retrial. In the espionage case, he was accused of collaborating with adverse foreign powers and militant groups, judicial and security sources said.
The attorney general’s office said, “The court granted him his request to speak for five minutes… He fell to the ground in the cage… and was transported immediately to the hospital. A medical report found… no pulse or breathing. He arrived at the hospital dead at 4:50 pm exactly and there were no new, visible injuries found on the body. ”
Morsi was overthrown on July 3rd 2013. Since then, his former defense minister now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has waged an ongoing crackdown, targeting his supporters from the Muslim Brotherhood with thousands jailed and hundreds facing death sentences.
The Freedom and Justice Party accused Egyptian authorities of “deliberately killing him slowly”.
They “put him in solitary confinement… they withheld medication and gave him disgusting food… they did not grant him the most basic human rights,” it said in a statement.
In a strongly worded statement, Amnesty International on Monday called on Egyptian authorities to open a probe into Morsi’s death.
“The Egyptian authorities must immediately order an impartial, thorough and transparent investigation into the circumstances of his death, as well as his detention conditions and his ability to access medical care,” the rights group said.