Today June 17 marks the second anniversary of President Mohammed Morsi's death in a Cairo Court cage. Egypt's first democratically elected President Morsi collapsed moments after addressing the court in Cairo over charges of espionage related to suspected contacts with the Palestinian group Hamas, which had close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, according to BBC.
Morsi spoke for some five minutes from a soundproof glass cage. Morsi was pronounced dead in hospital at 16:50 local time (14:50 GMT) and an initial report showed no signs of recent injuries on the body, Egypt's public prosecutor said.
Last month, his family said authorities had repeatedly denied access to him and that they knew little about the state of his health. During his time in prison, Morsi was allowed only three visits from relatives and was denied access to his lawyers or a doctor, according to human-rights group Amnesty International.
His son Abdullah told the Reuters news agency he did not know the location of the body and that authorities were refusing to allow Morsi to be buried in his native Nile Delta province of Sharqiya.
Morsi, who became Egypt's first democratically elected leader in 2012, was ousted in July 2013 by his Defense Minister, General el-Sisi, who later assumed the title of Field Marshal.
Morsi had already been sentenced to more than 45 years in prison in three separate trials, including for leading an outlawed group, detention and torture of anti-government protesters, and leaking state secrets.
There has long been concern about the politicized trials that have kept him in prison, as well as his conditions of confinement. Morsi had a history of ill-health, according to the BBC.
Soon after taking over power, el-Sisi's regime launched violent repressive campaign against its opponents.
According to Human Rights Watch report of 2021, Egyptians in 2020 continued to live under the harsh authoritarian grip of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government. Tens of thousands of government critics, including journalists and human-rights defenders, remain imprisoned on politically motivated charges, many in lengthy pretrial detention. Authorities frequently used terrorism charges against peaceful activists and harassed and detained relatives of dissidents abroad.
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