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By SJA Jafri + Agencies
MELBOURNE/ CAIRO: 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 an espionage trial and died, according to state TV and his family.
Morsi died from a sudden heart attack during the court session, state television reported early on Tuesday (local time), citing a medical source.
The source said Morsi, who was suffering from a benign tumour, had been given continuous medical attention.
Just before his death the 67-year-old had addressed the court, speaking from the glass cage he was kept in during sessions and warning he had “many secrets” he could reveal, a judicial official said.
A few minutes afterwards, he collapsed in the cage, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the press.
In his final comments, Morsi continued to insist he was Egypt’s legitimate president, demanding a special tribunal, one of his defence lawyers, Kamel Madour, said.
State TV said Morsi died before he could be taken to the hospital.
Morsi’s son, Ahmed, confirmed his father’s death in a Facebook post, adding, “we will meet again with God”.
The Muslim Brotherhood said the death of Morsi — the first democratically elected head of state in Egypt’s modern history — was a “full-fledged murder” and called on Egyptians to gather for a mass funeral.
In a statement on its website, the Brotherhood also called for crowds to gather outside Egyptian embassies around the world.
The Brotherhood accused the Egyptian Government of “assassinating” Morsi through years of poor prison conditions during which he was often kept in solitary confinement and barred from visits.
Since his ouster, Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders have been in prison, and put on multiple and lengthy trials.
Morsi was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of ordering Brotherhood members to break up a protest against him, resulting in deaths.
Multiple cases are still pending. Monday’s session was part of a retrial on charges of espionage with the Palestinian Hamas militant group.
Morsi was held in a special wing in Cairo’s Tora prison nicknamed Scorpion Prison. Rights groups say its poor conditions fall far below Egyptian and international standards.
Morsi was known to suffer from diabetes.
In audio leaked from a 2017 session of one of his trials, Morsi complained he was “completely isolated” from the court, unable to see or hear his defence team, and the lighting inside his cage hurt his eyes.
“I don’t know where I am,” he is heard saying in the audio.
“It’s steel behind steel and glass behind glass. The reflection of my image makes me dizzy.”
It was a dramatic end for a figure who was central in the twists and turns taken by Egypt since its “revolution” — the pro-democracy uprising that in 2011 ousted the country’s long-time authoritarian leader, Hosni Mubarak.
Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most powerful Islamist group, won the elections held after Mubarak’s fall.
It gained a majority in parliament and Morsi squeaked to victory in presidential elections held in 2012, becoming the first civilian to hold the office.
Critics accused the Brotherhood of seeking to monopolise power, enshrine an Islamist constitution and use violence against opponents, with massive protests soon growing against its rule.
In July 2013, the military — led by then-defence minister Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi — ousted Morsi, dissolved parliament and eventually banned the Brotherhood as a “terrorist group”.
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director with the Human Rights Watch, said in a tweet that Morsi’s death was “terrible but entirely predictable” given the Government’s “failure to allow him adequate medical care, much less family visits”.
Mohammed Sudan, leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in London, said Morsi was banned from receiving medicine or visits and there had been little information revealed about his health.
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