Former Egyptian President, Morsi Dies After Collapsing In Courtroom

Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi — the country’s first democratically elected leader, who served just one year before being deposed in a 2013 military coup — collapsed and died in a Cairo courtroom on Monday, according to local media reports.

Morsi was elected in 2012 after the Arab Spring uprisings ousted longtime President Hosni Mubarak. But Morsi’s tenure was short-lived; in 2013, following massive demonstrations across the country calling for him to step down, the Egyptian military led by current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi launched a coup to oust Morsi from power and had him arrested.

Morsi has since faced trial on a number of charges, including espionage, the charges he was addressing in the courtroom on Monday. A source said that Morsi, 67, was addressing the judge when he “became very animated and fainted.”

Morsi’s death is likely to raise even more questions about his treatment in prison. Morsi, who had health problems including diabetes and kidney disease, was held in solitary confinement for much of his incarceration. A 2018 report into Morsi’s detention by a panel of British members of Parliament found that Egypt had failed to meet the international minimum standards for prisoners known as the “Mandela Rules,” and warned that those conditions could lead to Morsi’s “premature death.”