Egypt’s former president Morsi dies in court: state media

CAIRO: Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has died in court, state television reported on Monday.

It said Morsi had fainted after a court session 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.

The official Al-Ahram news website also reported the death of Morsi, who was Egypt’s first democratically elected president but spent just one turbulent year in office after the 2011 uprising before the army toppled him in July 2013.

In one of the first condolences from another country’s leaders, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid tribute to Morsi, calling him a “martyr”.

Morsi, a top figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, was toppled by the military in 2013 after mass protests against this rule. He had been serving a seven-year sentence for falsifying his candidacy application for the 2012 presidential race.

Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani also expressed his “deep sorrow” following the “sudden death”.

“We received with deep sorrow the news of the sudden death of former president Dr Mohamed Mursi. I extend to his family and to the Egyptian people brotherly condolences,” Al-Thani wrote on Twitter.