Egypt's former President Mohammad Morsi dies in court

Egypt's former President Mohammad Morsi has passed away during a trial court session in the capital Cairo, state television says.

According to Press TV, it said 67-year-old Morsi fainted during a court session on Monday and died afterwards. 

"He was speaking before the judge for 20 minutes then became very animated and fainted. He was quickly rushed to the hospital where he later died," a judicial source said.

Morsi, a senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood organization, was Egypt’s first democratically-elected president after the 2011 revolution, but he was deposed following a military coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013.

He had been serving a 20-year prison term on charges of ordering the arrest and torture of protesters, a 25-year jail term on charges of passing intelligence to Qatar and a three-year term for insulting the judiciary.

In November 2016, the Court of Cassation scrapped the life imprisonment sentence for Morsi and 21 other defendants, including some who had received the death penalty, in the same case and ordered a retrial.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first world leader to pay tribute to Morsi, calling him a martyr.

"May Allah rest our brother Morsi, our martyr's soul in peace," said Erdogan, who had forged close ties with the late former president.

Egypt's public prosecutor said the former president was pronounced dead at 4:50 p.m. local time (02:50 GMT) at the hospital, and that a medical report showed no apparent recent injuries on his body.

Morsi suffered from medical neglect during his imprisonment as well as poor conditions in jail.

Human Rights Watch described the news of his death as "terrible" but "entirely predictable", citing the Egyptian government's "failure to allow him adequate medical care.”

Last year, a report by a panel of UK legislators and attorneys warned that the lack of medical treatment could result in Morsi's "premature death.”

Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi is likely to face “premature death” in prison, where he is being held in low-standard conditions and is subjected to “cruel” and “inhuman” treatment, a panel of UK legislators and attorneys says.

Morsi is “receiving inadequate medical care, particularly inadequate management of his diabetes, and inadequate management of his liver disease,” the Detention Review Panel (DRP), commissioned by Morsi’s family, said in a report released on Wednesday.

The treatment of Morsi has been “cruel, inhuman and degrading,” said the report. “The consequence of this inadequate care is likely to be rapid deterioration of his long-term conditions, which is likely to lead to premature death,” it added.

The panel warned that, based on the standards defined by both the Egyptian and international law, Morsi’s detention conditions verge on torture, adding that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi “could, in principle, be responsible for the crime of torture.”

The information about Morsi’s detention has been obtained from several sources, including testimony from his son as well as medical professionals informed of the situation, the DRP said.

The panel said it had initially requested to visit Morsi to assess his detention conditions, but the Egyptian government did not respond to the request.

ME