EGYPT
A Trial, A Death
Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, died Monday after collapsing during his trial in a Cairo courtroom.
No cause of death has been released so far, the New York Times reported. But critics blamed inhumane treatment during his imprisonment for his failing health. The former president had been denied medicine for diabetes, high blood pressure and liver disease, and been held in solitary confinement for long periods, they claimed.
Morsi’s erstwhile political party, the Muslim Brotherhood, called it a case of “full-fledged murder,” according to Reuters, and urged Egyptians to gather for a mass funeral. Amnesty International urged Egypt to investigate the cause of the 67-year-old leader’s death, the agency reported separately. Specifically, the human rights watchdog called for an investigation into the medical treatment Morsi received.
In 2012, Morsi won Egypt’s first democratic presidential election following the Arab Spring uprising but he was removed from power a year later in a military takeover. He was facing trial for espionage, though he had been imprisoned on various other charges since 2013, the Times noted.
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