Egypt’s former president, Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who rose to office in the country’s first free elections in 2012 and was ousted a year later by the military, collapsed in court during a trial and died Monday, state TV and his family said.
The 67-year-old Morsi had just addressed the court, speakingfrom the glass cage he is kept in during sessions and warning that he had”many secrets” he could reveal, a judicial official said.
A few minutes afterward, he collapsed, the official said,speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to thepress.
State TV said Morsi died before he could be taken to thehospital.
Morsi has been in prison undergoing multiple trials eversince the military ousted him in July 2013 and launched a massive crackdown onhis Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists. Monday’s session was part of a retrial, beingheld inside Cairo’s Tura Prison, on charges of espionage with the PalestinianHamas militant group. Morsi’s son, Ahmed, confirmed the death of his father ina Facebook post.