Morsi buried after court death

Former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has been buried after he collapsed in court and died on Monday.

His lawyer told the AFP news agency that the former leader had been buried in eastern Cairo, early on Tuesday morning with his family present.

Morsi, who was 67, had been in custody since his removal from office in 2013.

Human rights groups, who had criticised the conditions in which he was kept, have called for an impartial investigation into his death.

His family and activists had repeatedly raised concerns about his health and how long he was kept in solitary confinement, away from visits by lawyers and family.

His son, Abdullah Mohamed Morsi, told Reuters on Monday, that Egyptian authorities had denied a family request for a public funeral in his hometown.

A top figure in the now-banned Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi became the country’s first democratically elected leader in 2012.

He was ousted and detained in a military coup a year later, following mass protests against his rule.

Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, a former army chief, has been in power since 2014.

After Morsi’s removal, the authorities launched a crackdown on his supporters and other dissent, leading to tens of thousands of arrests.

The Muslim Brotherhood and Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a close ally of Morsi, are among those who have blamed the Egyptian leadership for Morsi’s death.

Morsi was appearing in Cairo on Monday on charges of espionage related to suspected contacts with the Palestinian militant Islamist group, Hamas.

Officials say he had asked to address the jury, and spoke for about five minutes from a soundproof glass cage where he was being held with other defendants.

Minutes later, he apparently fainted during a break in proceedings.

“He was transferred to a hospital where he was pronounced dead,” a statement by Egypt’s public prosecutor said.

Officials said a forensic report had been ordered into his death, and insisted no new, visible injuries were found on his body.

State television had earlier described the cause of his death as a heart attack.

Morsi was already facing decades in jail after being sentenced in three other trials. He had previously been given a death sentence, which was later overturned.

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division, tweeted that his death was “terrible but entirely predictable”. –BBC