Egypts Arab Spring ex-president Morsi 'drops dead' in court

[TonyGosling]

U.N. joins call for independent probe into death of Egypt’s ousted president Morsi
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/egypts-ousted-president-morsi-bur ied-in-cairo-after-controversial-courtroom-death/2019/06/18/d4f0988a-9 19f-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803_story.html

The entrance to the cordoned-off public graveyard where former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was buried June 18, 2019, in a Cairo suburb. (Nariman El-Mofty/AP)
By Sudarsan Raghavan and
Claire Parker June 18 at 12:13 PM
CAIRO — The United Nations on Tuesday joined the chorus calling for an independent investigation into the death of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, a day after he collapsed and died inside a Cairo courtroom.

“Concerns have been raised regarding the conditions of Mr. Morsi’s detention, including access to adequate medical care, as well as sufficient access to his lawyers and family, during his nearly six years in custody,” said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Morsi, who suffered from diabetes and liver disease, was held in solitary confinement for six years. He had complained during earlier court proceedings that he was denied the insulin dosage and special diet he required and that as a result had experienced diabetic comas, according to Human Rights Watch. A prison nurse or doctor would occasionally monitor his blood pressure and sugar levels, but no additional health care had been provided, and he was forced to buy his own insulin, the group reported. His family said he had lost most of the sight in one eye because of medical negligence.

By urging an impartial probe into whether the conditions of Morsi’s detention “had an impact on his death,” the United Nations could bring more pressure on Egypt’s government to launch a proper inquiry. The calls for such an investigation have, until now, been from Morsi’s supporters and human rights groups, which the government has dismissed as politically motivated.

The 67-year-old Morsi, who was elected president in 2012 and ousted a year later in a military coup, was interred Tuesday during a closed funeral in a public cemetery in Cairo’s eastern enclave of Nasr City. Egyptian authorities refused to allow his family to bury him in his family’s graveyard in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya, his son Ahmad Morsi said in a Facebook post.

[Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi collapses in court, dies while facing trial]

Mohamed Morsi, the first democratically elected Egyptian president, died on June 17 from a heart attack after collapsing in a Cairo court. (Reuters)

Egyptian authorities and local media reports suggest that Morsi died of a possible heart attack or stroke. The nation’s public prosecutor said a report on the cause of the death was being prepared. It is unclear whether that was completed before the burial, which in Islam is usually within 24 hours of death.

The Muslim Brotherhood, whose top members are now in exile in Turkey and elsewhere, described Morsi’s death as “murder.”

While in solitary confinement, Morsi was largely denied access to family members, friends and lawyers. His family was allowed to visit him only three times.

In calling for an investigation, Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said that Morsi’s death “followed years of government mistreatment” and that his medical care had been “inadequate.”

“At the very least, the Egyptian government committed grave abuses against Morsi by denying him prisoners’ rights that met minimum standards.”

In a statement Tuesday, Egypt’s State Information Service called the allegations a “new ethical low” and “an attempt to prematurely reach outcomes with the most politicized intentions.” It added that the accusations of medical mistreatment are “unfounded.”

During a court appearance in June 2017, Morsi asked to brief his lawyers on the “crimes” he had endured in prison. Even as his condition worsened, an official health report presented during that court session declared Morsi to be healthy apart from suffering from high blood pressure.

In a Washington Post op-ed last year, Abdullah Morsi, the former president’s son, wrote that his father had lost most of his sight in one eye while in prison because of inadequate health care. “We fear that the Egyptian authorities are doing this on purpose, since they want to see him dead ‘from natural causes’ as soon as possible,” Abdullah Morsi wrote at the time.

Human Rights Watch published a report in June 2017 describing Morsi’s health problems and condemning the Egyptian government’s unwillingness to allow the prisoner access to proper care, family visits and information about the outside world.

His family told the organization that Morsi had fainted twice and had fallen into a diabetic coma during the first week of June 2017. According to Whitson, Morsi told his family that a medical professional had informed him that he needed surgery for his deteriorating sight but that he never was able to get it.

By contrast, the Egyptian government was far more attentive to the health of former president Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed during the Arab Spring protests. When Mubarak encountered health problems while in prison, authorities transferred him to a Cairo military hospital, where he was detained until his release from custody in 2017.

Before Morsi’s burial Tuesday, his family attended funeral prayers in the mosque of the capital’s Tora prison, where they washed and shrouded his body and performed other traditional rites, Ahmad Morsi said. The burial was attended only by family members, under heavy security.

Egyptian security agents prevented reporters and photographers from attending the funeral and barred journalists from traveling to Morsi’s village. State newspapers carried his death in brief notices on the inside pages.

As Egypt’s government worked to prevent any public discussion of Morsi’s legacy and death, the ousted president was receiving something resembling state honors in Turkey, where prayers were said in his memory on Tuesday and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan referred to Morsi as a “martyr.”

Erdogan, a supporter of the Arab Spring protest movements and an Islamist leader sympathetic to the Brotherhood, had been one of Morsi’s key allies during Morsi’s year as Egypt’s president. Erdogan has also been a vocal critic of the coup that deposed Morsi and of the government of President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi. Hundreds of exiled members of the Brotherhood live in Turkey, welcomed by Erdogan’s government.

“I am condemning the Western world and humanity, who watched Morsi taken down in a coup and tortured in a prison cell,” Erdogan said at a political rally in Istanbul, according to the Reuters news agency.

Morsi, a senior leader of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement, was elected president a year after Egypt’s Arab Spring uprising toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. That vote is still considered the country’s only fairly contested presidential election, and for many Egyptians, Morsi’s victory represented hope that democracy would take root after decades of military-led rule.

But within a year, Morsi had lost much of his political goodwill. Critics accused him of seeking to usurp power and Islamize the government and nation and of mismanaging the economy.

In July 2013, the military ousted Morsi after massive demonstrations erupted against his government. The military arrested him and other top Islamist leaders.

A month later, Egyptian troops raided protest camps, killing hundreds of Morsi’s supporters in Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya Square and other areas. Human Rights Watch called it “one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.”

The Muslim Brotherhood was outlawed as a “terrorist group.”

During the coup and the massacre, the army was led by then-Gen. Sissi. He became Egypt’s president in 2014 and was reelected last year after all his credible opponents dropped out because of arrest, intimidation or the lack of a level playing field.

Sissi’s government has jailed tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters, all but crushing the movement. His authoritarianism has spread since 2017, silencing most forms of dissent, including shutting down hundreds of websites deemed critical and most independent news media.

The government also continued to target Morsi and other top Muslim Brotherhood leaders even while they were in prison. A death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, but Morsi faced multiple trials on charges including inciting violence.

When he collapsed Monday in a glass cage where defendants are held in the courtroom, he was on trial on charges of engaging in espionage with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.

Parker reported from Washington. Kareem Fahim, in Istanbul, contributed to this report.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

News | Death Of Morsi
Erdogan says Mohamed Morsi was 'killed' and calls for investigation
Turkish president says he did not believe the former Egyptian leader had died 'of natural causes'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses mourner during a symbolic funeral cerenomy for the former Egyptian president the day after his death in Cairo, on 18 June 2019 at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul (AFP)
By MEE and agencies
Published date: 19 June 2019 13:35 UTC
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkeys-erdogan-says-mohamed-morsi- was-killed-and-calls-investigation

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Mohamed Morsi was "killed" and called for Egypt's government to face an international investigation over the death.

Speaking during a televised speech in Istanbul, Erdogan said the imprisoned former president - who was overthrown in a coup in 2013 - had been deliberately allowed to die by Egyptian authorities.

"Morsi was struggling on the floor in the courtroom for 20 minutes. Authorities unfortunately did not intervene to save him," Erdogan said.

"Morsi was killed, he did not die of natural causes."

Erdogan forged close ties with Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected civilian president and a prominent Muslim Brotherhood member.

But Ankara's relations with Cairo deteriorated after the Egyptian military, then led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, ousted Morsi in 2013.

Sisi then became president.


‘A funeral with no body or coffin’: How Morsi’s hometown observed his death
Read More »
Erdogan has sharply denounced the military takeover in Egypt and called it a "coup".

On Wednesday, he said he would follow up on the process related to Morsi's death.

"We will do whatever is needed for Egypt to be tried in international courts."

The attorney-general's office in Egypt has said that Morsi was "transported immediately to the hospital", where medics pronounced him dead - a version confirmed by a judicial source.

Morsi was buried on Tuesday, as rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for an independent probe into the causes of his death.

Erdogan on Tuesday joined in prayer at an Istanbul mosque for the former Egyptian leader.

Egypt's government, still led by Sisi, has reacted with anger to suggestions that it intentionally caused Morsi's death.

On Wednesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Hafez slammed a UN call for an inquiry as a "deliberate attempt to politicise a natural death".

He said he condemned in the "strongest possible terms" the request from the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, made on Tuesday.

"Any sudden death in custody must be followed by a prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body to clarify the cause of death," said Colville.

"Concerns have been raised regarding the conditions of Mr Morsi's detention, including access to adequate medical care, as well as sufficient access to his lawyers and family."



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[TonyGosling]

American culpability in Morsi’s demise
Ashraf W. Nubani The Electronic Intifada 30 July 2019
https://electronicintifada.net/content/american-culpability-morsis-dem ise/28001

Large photo of Morsi carried above protesters
Palestinians in Gaza’s Nusseirat refugee camp demonstrate in support of ousted Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi in July 2013. Ashraf Amra APA images
For many Americans, the criminally negligent death of Egypt’s first freely elected president last month will go mostly unnoticed, despite their government’s responsibility.

In 2012, in the wake of the uprisings dubbed the “Arab Spring” and the ouster of longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muhammad Morsi narrowly defeated a former air force chief supported by top military brass.

In office for barely a year, Morsi was never actually allowed to rule. At every turn, the deep state plotted to undermine his authority. From prearranged fuel shortages to state media coverage intended to undermine a civilian presidency, the generals, led by Abdulfattah al-Sisi, orchestrated opposition to Morsi’s rule.

American-enabled coup
In July 2013, their machinations paid off. Capitalizing on instigated and inflated public opposition, an American-enabled coup overthrew Morsi, suspended the constitution, dissolved the government, and silenced dissenting voices. The Muslim Brotherhood was violently crushed, its membership imprisoned, and al-Sisi’s most critical opponents, including secularists, were forced into exile.

American culpability in Egypt’s failed democratic experiment was the culmination of decades of foreign policy. For more than half a century, the US government has squandered some $70 billion in mostly military aid to Egypt. The largesse ramped up after the signing of the Camp David accords in 1979 to ensure a compliant Egyptian partner in a peace treaty with Israel.

Washington was not about to jeopardize its investment in Israel’s regional hegemony and its continued occupation of the Palestinians.

In return, the Egyptian military has been a reliable partner in providing cover and support for Israel and in suppressing Islamist participation in Egyptian politics since the early 1950s.

More than six decades of CIA meddling in Egypt is undisputed, and al-Sisi himself received military training in the US. The result has been an increasingly repressive military regime that has suppressed aspirations for democratic self-determination for nearly 100 million Egyptians.

Some may view Muslim Brotherhood rule, and Egypt’s first democratically elected president, as hostile to Americans’ secular way of life, democratic values and interests in the Middle East. Americans may be enamored by their government’s military might and insatiable penchant for intervention around the globe. But this is a shortsighted view.

Neither Muslim religious involvement in governance nor Morsi’s presidency were necessarily bad for Egypt’s national interests, or America’s best interests for that matter. Islamic governance is widely misunderstood. We may disagree with the mixing of religion and state. However, those of us in the West should not force our way of life on others.

The main criticisms of President Morsi were that he amassed power, alienated Egypt’s politicized public, sidelined secular parties and forced adoption of an Islamic-dominated constitution that allowed the government to undermine individual rights.

While these may be valid criticisms, they are applied unfairly when it comes to post-Mubarak Egypt, which was in the throes of a revolution.

Counterrevolutionary forces
As hindsight now reveals, Morsi’s attempts to consolidate power were too little, too late to prevent his overthrow by counterrevolutionary forces. A large swath of the Egyptian public was manipulated by the oligarchy-controlled media into anti-Morsi demonstrations, which were in turn used as a pretext for military intervention.

The Muslim Brotherhood, long-repressed and forced to work clandestinely, was distrustful of its political rivals and feared intrigue on the part of its opponents. It could have done more to build an anti-military alliance. However, its instincts were valid to a degree.

The Muslim Brotherhood was voted into office with a clear mandate to rule. The Freedom and Justice Party, and other Islamic factions, made up a supermajority in parliament and it was a foregone conclusion that a constitution based on Islamic principles would be adopted.

Violence and arrests during Morsi’s tenure were linked to government forces loyal to the generals. For his part, he promised freedom of expression. Unfettered, Egyptian media multiplied their attacks on him and the Brotherhood.

This is not to say that he and the Brotherhood did not make key mistakes or could have handled matters differently. President Morsi wanted Egypt to be independent politically, militarily and economically. He promoted an Egypt-first platform. His government opened the Rafah crossing with Gaza, closed for years during Mubarak’s rule, rattling Israel, some in the West, and the military.

The US cannot claim to be the greatest nation in the world without the moral credentials to back it up. Why is it that America, second only to Israel, is perceived by the peoples of the Middle East as one of the greatest threats to peace in the region?

The millions of Egyptians who voted for Morsi know that if the US allowed the Egyptian experiment with democracy to endure, military dictator al-Sisi would not be in power today and the elected president would still be alive.

Ashraf W. Nubani is an attorney and a Palestinian American and Muslim community leader in the Washington, DC metro area.