Mohamed Morsi Collapses In Court, Dies While Facing Trial – OpEd

Egypt’s first democratically elected civilian president, Mohamed Morsi, collapsed during a court session and died.

Morsi was an Egyptian politician who served as the fifth President of Egypt, from 30 June 2012 to 3 July 2013, when General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi removed him from office in the coup d’état after the June protests.

Morsi issued a temporary constitutional declaration in November 2012 that in effect granted him unlimited powers and the power to legislate without judicial oversight or review of his acts as a pre-emptive move against the expected dissolution of the second constituent assembly by the Mubarak-era judges.

On the other side, Morsi used the Islamic groups and put them in a managerial position, which resulted in the anger of the Egyptian people, the media announced that Islamist groups would control state posts, weakening Morsi’s public opinion.

According to that, protests erupted across Egypt on 30 June 2013, in which protesters called for the president’s resignation.

In response to the events, Morsi was given a 48-hour ultimatum by Egypt’s military to meet their demands and to resolve political differences, but Muslim Brotherhood refused on the other hand Egypt’s military will “implementing their own road map” for the country.

He was unseated on 3 July by a military coup council consisting of Defense Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar Ahmed el-Tayeb, and Coptic Pope Tawadros II.

So that, Muslim Brotherhood protested the military coup, but the pro-Morsi protests centered in the August 2013 Rabaa massacre in which at least 817 civilians were killed.

On 17 June Morsi, was attending a session in his trial on espionage charges on Monday when he blacked out and died, according to state media.

“After the case was adjourned, he fainted and died. His body was then transferred to the hospital,” reported the Egyptian state newspaper al-Ahram, referring to Morsi’s retrial for allegedly spying for the Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas.

Egypt’s public prosecutor said Morsi, 67, was pronounced dead on arrival at a Cairo hospital, after he fainted inside the defendant’s “cage” in the courtroom.

The Brotherhood accused the government of “assassinating” Morsi through years of poor prison conditions and called on Egyptians to gather for a mass funeral.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, reacted angrily to news of Morsi’s death. “History will never forget those tyrants who led to his death by putting him in jail and threatening him with execution,” he said in a televised speech.

Morsi was arrested after the 2013 coup and has faced trial on three separate counts of leaking state secrets to Qatar, according to that, many protesters was killing during a sit-in outside the presidential palace and spying for Hamas.

He received multiple long sentences, including a life sentence for spying for Qatar and a 20-year sentence for killing protesters.

A death sentence for charges relating to a mass jailbreak during the revolution was overturned in a retrial in November 2016.

Morsi was subject to retrials in several cases, and was sentenced to a further two years in prison and fined 2 million Egyptian pounds (£83,000) in 2017 for insulting the judiciary.

Many of his supporters met an even worse fate. On 14 August 2013, Egyptian security forces raided two protest encampments that had been set up in Cairo to demand that Morsi be reinstated. At least 1,150 were killed in five separate incidents when Egyptian forces opened fire on protesters, according to Human Rights Watch.

The former president, who had a history of ill health including diabetes and liver and kidney disease, was held in solitary confinement in Tora prison in Cairo.

He received multiple long sentences from 2014 to 2019, the first one a life sentence for spying for Qatar and a 20-year sentence for killing protesters.

Second, sentenced to a further two years in prison and fined 2 million Egyptian pounds (£83,000). Third, sentence in 2017 for insulting the judiciary.

Morsi had a history of ill health including diabetes and liver and kidney disease, was held in solitary confinement in Tora prison in Cairo.

So that, we have to think did God bless President Morsi from life imprisonment? I think this will be open files of the corruption in the Middle East? or are there many political changes that will happen soon.

*Miral Sabry Al Ashry , Associate Professor at Future University (FUE), Political Mass Media Department