Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi has collapsed during a court session and died, according to state television.
The state broadcaster said on Monday that Morsi, 67, was attending a session in his trial on espionage charges when he blacked out and then died. His body was taken to a hospital, it said.
Morsi, a senior figure in the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, was elected president in 2012 in the country’s first free elections after longtime leader Hosni Mubarak was forced from power.
Following a wave of mass protests in 2013, the military ousted Morsi and crushed the Brotherhood in a major crackdown, arresting many of the group’s leaders.
In 2018, a panel of three British parliamentarians reported that Morsi was being kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, with just one hour allowed for exercise.
The politicians – who formed an independent detention review panel – said that the conditions of Morsi’s confinement could be classified as torture and could also lead to his premature death.
Morsi, who had a history of ill health including diabetes, liver and kidney disease, was not receiving the medical care required, the MPs found.
More details soon…